Kurt Wilhelm Sebastian Hensel (29 December 1861 – 1 June 1941) was a German mathematician born in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

Life and career

Hensel was born in

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

(today

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...

, Russia), the son of Julia (née von Adelson) and landowner and entrepreneur Sebastian Hensel. He was the brother of philosopher

Paul Hensel Paul Hugo Wilhelm Hensel (17 May 1860, Groß-Barthen near Königsberg – 11 November 1930, Erlangen) was a German philosopher. Biography Hensel was born in Groß-Barten near Königsberg, Prussia. He was the son of the landowner and entrep ...

. Kurt and Paul's paternal grandparents were painter

Wilhelm Hensel Wilhelm Hensel (6 July 1794 – 26 November 1861) was a German painter, brother of Luise Hensel, husband to Fanny Mendelssohn, and brother-in-law to Felix Mendelssohn. Life and career Wilhelm Hensel was born on 6 July 1794 in the German tow ...

and composer

Fanny Mendelssohn Fanny Mendelssohn (14 November 1805 – 14 May 1847) was a German composer and pianist of the early Romantic era who was also known as Fanny (Cäcilie) Mendelssohn Bartholdy and, after her marriage, Fanny Hensel (as well as Fanny Mendelssohn He ...

. Fanny was the sister of

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...

, daughter of

Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy Abraham Ernst Mendelssohn Bartholdy (born Abraham Mendelssohn; 10 December 1776 – 19 November 1835) was a German banker and philanthropist. He was the father of Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn, Rebecka Mendelssohn, and Paul Mendelssohn ...

, and granddaughter of philosopher

Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or 'Je ...

, and entrepreneur

Daniel Itzig Daniel Itzig (also known as Daniel Yoffe 18 March 1723 in Berlin – 17 May 1799 in Potsdam) was a Court Jew of Kings Frederick II the Great and Frederick William II of Prussia. Biography Itzig was born in Berlin. His family was mercantile. I ...

. Both of Hensel's grandmothers and his mother were from Jewish families that had converted to Christianity. Hensel studied mathematics in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

, under the mathematicians

Leopold Kronecker Leopold Kronecker (; 7 December 1823 – 29 December 1891) was a German mathematician who worked on number theory, algebra and logic. He criticized Georg Cantor's work on set theory, and was quoted by as having said, "'" ("God made the integers, ...

and

Karl Weierstrass Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass (german: link=no, Weierstraß ; 31 October 1815 – 19 February 1897) was a German mathematician often cited as the "father of modern analysis". Despite leaving university without a degree, he studied mathematics ...

. Later in his life Hensel was a professor at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

until 1930. He was also an editor of the mathematical ''

Crelle's Journal ''Crelle's Journal'', or just ''Crelle'', is the common name for a mathematics journal, the ''Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik'' (in English: ''Journal for Pure and Applied Mathematics''). History The journal was founded by Augus ...

''. He edited the five-volume collected works of Leopold Kronecker. Hensel is well known for his introduction of ''p''-adic numbers. First described by him in 1897, they became increasingly important in

number theory Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic function, integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777� ...

and other fields during the twentieth century.

Publications

''Theorie der algebraischen Funktionen einer Variabeln und ihre Anwendung auf algebraische Kurven und Abelsche Integrale''
(zus. mit

Georg Landsberg Georg Landsberg (January 30, 1865 – September 14, 1912) was a German mathematician, known for his work in the theory of algebraic functions and on the Riemann–Roch theorem.. The Takagi–Landsberg curve, a fractal that is the graph of a nowh ...

) Teubner, Leipzig 1902 * ''Theorie der algebraischen Zahlen'' Teubner, Leipzig 1908 * ''Zahlentheorie'' Göschen, Berlin 1913 * ''Gedächtnisrede auf

Ernst Eduard Kummer Ernst Eduard Kummer (29 January 1810 – 14 May 1893) was a German mathematician. Skilled in applied mathematics, Kummer trained German army officers in ballistics; afterwards, he taught for 10 years in a '' gymnasium'', the German equivalent of h ...

zu dessen 100. GeburtstagAbhandlungen zur Geschichte der mathematischen Wissenschaften mit Einschluss ihrer Anwendungen
/ref>
''Über eine neue Begründung der Theorie der algebraischen Zahlen'', Jahresbericht DMV, Band 6, 1899

References

External links

* * * * * Helmut Hasse: ''Kurt Hensel zum Gedächtnis'' in
Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik 187 (1949)
S. 1-13
Die Hensel-Familie im Stammbaum der Katzenelnbogen, der Mendelssohns und Bartholdys und ihre Abkömmlinge von 1729 bis ca. 1987
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hensel, Kurt 1861 births 1941 deaths 19th-century German mathematicians 20th-century German mathematicians German people of Jewish descent Number theorists Scientists from Königsberg People from the Province of Prussia University of Bonn alumni University of Marburg faculty Hensel family