Robert Johann Maria König (11 April 1885,

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...

– 9 July 1979,

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

) was an Austrian mathematician. He studied from 1903 to 1907 at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

and at 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 he received his PhD under

David Hilbert David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many a ...

with thesis ''Oszillationseigenschaften der Eigenfunktionen der Integralgleichung mit definitem Kern und das Jacobische Kriterium der Variationsrechnung''. In 1911 he earned his

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

qualification at 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 ...

with thesis ''Konforme Abbildung der Oberfläche einer räumlichen Ecke''. He worked next in Leipzig as assistant and

privatdocent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...

. In 1914 he was appointed

Ausserordentlicher Professor Academic ranks in Germany are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia. Overview Appointment grades * (Pay grade: ''W3'' or ''W2'') * (''W3'') * (''W2'') * (''W2'', ...

at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

, where in 1921 he became professor ordinarius. In World War I, he was from 1916 to 1918 a member of the Deputy General Staff in Berlin. From 1919 to 1921 he declined three academic calls then accepted in 1922 a call to be

Ordentlicher Professor Academic ranks in Germany are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia. Overview Appointment grades * (Pay grade: ''W3'' or ''W2'') * (''W3'') * (''W2'') * (''W2'', ...

at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over ...

as successor to

Leon Lichtenstein Leon Lichtenstein (16 May 1878 – 21 August 1933) was a Polish-German mathematician, who made contributions to the areas of differential equations, conformal mapping, and potential theory. He was also interested in theoretical physics, publish ...

. From 1922 to 1926, he was assistant to Maximilian Krafft, with whom he wrote the textbook ''Elliptischen Funktionen''. In 1927 König was appointed Ordentlicher Professor and institute director at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

, where he replaced

Paul Koebe Paul Koebe (15 February 1882 – 6 August 1945) was a 20th-century German mathematician. His work dealt exclusively with the complex numbers, his most important results being on the uniformization of Riemann surfaces in a series of four papers in ...

. From 1934 to 1943,

Friedrich Karl Schmidt Friedrich Karl Schmidt (22 September 1901 – 25 January 1977) was a German mathematician, who made notable contributions to algebra and number theory. Schmidt studied from 1920 to 1925 in Freiburg and Marburg. In 1925 he completed his doctorate ...

and König represented pure mathematics in Jena. In 1934 the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig elected him as a full member. Because both Schmid and König were opposed to Nazism, they were involved in disputes over the appointment of new, politically reliable mathematicians at the University of Jena in the Nazi era. After the end of World War II, König went to the

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

. At Munich from 1947 to 1950, he was instrumental in offering professorships to

Constantin Carathéodory Constantin Carathéodory ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Καραθεοδωρή, Konstantinos Karatheodori; 13 September 1873 – 2 February 1950) was a Greek mathematician who spent most of his professional career in Germany. He made significant ...

and

Eberhard Hopf Eberhard Frederich Ferdinand Hopf (April 4, 1902 in Salzburg, Austria-Hungary – July 24, 1983 in Bloomington, Indiana, USA) was a mathematician and astronomer, one of the founding fathers of ergodic theory and a pioneer of bifurcation theory who ...

. From 1950 to 1955, König was Ordentlicher Professor at Munich. In 1953, he was made a full member in the Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. His doctoral students include

Helmut Röhrl Helmut Röhrl or Rohrl (born 22 March 1927 in Straubing, died 30 January 2014) was a German mathematician. Besides complex analysis (including among other subjects the Riemann–Hilbert problem), he worked on algebra and category theory and to ...

and

Karl-Heinrich Weise Karl Heinrich Weise (24 May 1909, Gera – 15 April 1990, Kiel) was a German mathematician. In 1956 he was the president of the German Mathematical Society (''Deutsche-Mathematiker Vereinigung'', DMV). Biography Karl-Heinrich Weise, the son of a ...

, with whom he wrote in 1951 a book on geodesy and cartography ''Mathematische Grundlagen der höheren Geodäsie und Kartographie''.

Sources

* Walter Streitfeld: ''Universitätsprofessor Dr. Robert König. Zum 80. Geburtstag des Mathematikers am 11. April 1965.'' In: ''Oberösterreichischer Kulturbericht.'' 1965, Folge 13

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Konig, Robert Johann Maria 20th-century Austrian mathematicians 1885 births 1979 deaths Scientists from Linz University of Vienna alumni University of Göttingen alumni Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of the University of Tübingen Academic staff of the University of Münster Academic staff of the University of Jena Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Mathematicians from Austria-Hungary