Herbert Karl Johannes Seifert (; 27 May 1897, Bernstadt – 1 October 1996,

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

known for his work in

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformations, such ...

Biography

Seifert was born in Bernstadt auf dem Eigen, but soon moved to

Bautzen Bautzen () or Budyšin () is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and the administrative centre of the district of Bautzen. It is located on the Spree river. In 2018 the town's population was 39,087. Until 1868, its German name was ''Budis ...

, where he attended primary school at the Knabenbürgerschule, and secondary school at the Oberrealschule. In 1926 Seifert entered the

Dresden University of Technology TU Dresden (for german: Technische Universität Dresden, abbreviated as TUD and often wrongly translated as "Dresden University of Technology") is a public research university, the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, th ...

. The next year he attended a course on

given by

William Threlfall William Richard Maximilian Hugo Threlfall (25 June 1888, in Dresden – 4 April 1949, in Oberwolfach) was a British-born German mathematician who worked on algebraic topology. He was a coauthor of the standard textbook Lehrbuch der Topologie. In ...

. This would be the beginning both of his lifelong work in the subject and his friendship with Threlfall. In the year 1928–29 he visited the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

, where topologists such as

Pavel Sergeevich Alexandrov Pavel Sergeyevich Alexandrov (russian: Па́вел Серге́евич Алекса́ндров), sometimes romanized ''Paul Alexandroff'' (7 May 1896 – 16 November 1982), was a Soviet mathematician. He wrote about three hundred papers, ma ...

and

Heinz Hopf Heinz Hopf (19 November 1894 – 3 June 1971) was a German mathematician who worked on the fields of topology and geometry. Early life and education Hopf was born in Gräbschen, Germany (now , part of Wrocław, Poland), the son of Elizabeth ( ...

were working. In 1930 he received his doctorate with his work on three-dimensional

closed manifold In mathematics, a closed manifold is a manifold without boundary that is compact. In comparison, an open manifold is a manifold without boundary that has only ''non-compact'' components. Examples The only connected one-dimensional example ...

s (which contains the Seifert–van Kampen theorem). He then moved to the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

, where he received his second doctorate in 1932. It was here that Seifert submitted his dissertation, ''Topologie 3-dimensionaler gefaserter Räume'' (“Topology of 3-dimensional fibred spaces”), on 1 February 1932, and he was awarded with this doctorate of philosophy after his oral examination on March 3. The

manifold In mathematics, a manifold is a topological space that locally resembles Euclidean space near each point. More precisely, an n-dimensional manifold, or ''n-manifold'' for short, is a topological space with the property that each point has a n ...

s he studied in his thesis were afterwards named

Seifert fiber space A Seifert fiber space is a 3-manifold together with a decomposition as a disjoint union of circles. In other words, it is a S^1-bundle ( circle bundle) over a 2-dimensional orbifold. Many 3-manifolds are Seifert fiber spaces, and they account for ...

s. Seifert continued to collaborate with Threlfall, and in 1934 (the year Seifert received his habilitation) they published their ''

Lehrbuch der Topologie In mathematics, ''Lehrbuch der Topologie'' (German for "textbook of topology") is a book by Herbert Seifert and William Threlfall, first published in 1934 and published in an English translation in 1980. It was one of the earliest textbooks on alge ...

''. In 1938 they published ''Variationsrechnung im Grossen''. In 1935, Seifert was summoned to a post at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

, where he took a position vacated by the dismissal of a Jewish professor. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he volunteered for a position at a

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

research center, the Institut für Gasdynamik. After the war, Seifert was one of the few German professors whom the Allies trusted during the period of

denazification Denazification (german: link=yes, Entnazifizierung) was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by remov ...

. In the year 1948–49 Seifert visited the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

. On 13 September 1949, soon after returning to Germany, he married Katharina Korn. Seifert retired in 1975. His students include

Albrecht Dold Albrecht Dold (5 August 1928 – 26 September 2011) was a German mathematician specializing in algebraic topology who proved the Dold–Thom theorem, the Dold–Kan correspondence, and introduced Dold manifolds, Dold–Puppe stabilization, ...

Dieter Puppe Siegmund Dieter Puppe (16 December 1930 – 13 August 2005''Mathematik in der ...

, and

Horst Schubert Horst Schubert (11 June 1919 – 2001) was a German mathematician. Schubert was born in Chemnitz and studied mathematics and physics at the Universities of Frankfurt am Main, Zürich and Heidelberg, where in 1948 he received his PhD under Herb ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Seifert, Herbert 1907 births 1996 deaths People from Görlitz (district) People from the Kingdom of Saxony 20th-century German mathematicians Topologists TU Dresden alumni German textbook writers

Biography

See also

References

External links