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Kurt Werner Friedrich Reidemeister (13 October 1893 – 8 July 1971) was a
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 ...
born in
Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...
(Brunswick),
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.


Life

He was a brother of
Marie Neurath Marie Neurath, born Marie Reidemeister (27 May 1898 – 10 October 1986), was a German designer, social scientist and author. Neurath was a member of the team that developed a simplified pictographic language, the Vienna Method of Pictorial St ...
. Beginning in 1912, he studied in
Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...
,
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 ...
,
Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...
, and
Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
. In 1920, he got the
staatsexamen The ("state examination" or "exam by state"; pl.: ''Staatsexamina'') is a German government licensing examination that future physicians, dentists, teachers, pharmacists, food chemists, psychotherapists and jurists (i.e., lawyers, judges, public ...
(master's degree) in mathematics, philosophy, physics, chemistry, and geology. He received his doctorate in 1921 with a
thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...
in
algebraic number theory Algebraic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses the techniques of abstract algebra to study the integers, rational numbers, and their generalizations. Number-theoretic questions are expressed in terms of properties of algebraic ob ...
at the
University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...
under the supervision of
Erich Hecke Erich Hecke (20 September 1887 – 13 February 1947) was a German mathematician known for his work in number theory and the theory of modular forms. Biography Hecke was born in Buk, Province of Posen, German Empire (now Poznań, Poland). He ...
. He became interested in
differential geometry Differential geometry is a mathematical discipline that studies the geometry of smooth shapes and smooth spaces, otherwise known as smooth manifolds. It uses the techniques of differential calculus, integral calculus, linear algebra and multili ...
; he edited
Wilhelm Blaschke Wilhelm Johann Eugen Blaschke (13 September 1885 – 17 March 1962) was an Austrian mathematician working in the fields of differential and integral geometry. Education and career Blaschke was the son of mathematician Josef Blaschke, who taught ...
's 2nd volume about that issue, and both made an acclaimed contribution to the Jena DMV conference in Sep 1921. In October 1922 (or 1923) he was appointed assistant professor 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 ...
. While there he became familiar with the work of
Wilhelm Wirtinger Wilhelm Wirtinger (19 July 1865 – 16 January 1945) was an Austrian mathematician, working in complex analysis, geometry, algebra, number theory, Lie groups and knot theory. Biography He was born at Ybbs on the Danube and studied at the Unive ...
on
knot theory In the mathematical field of topology, knot theory is the study of knot (mathematics), mathematical knots. While inspired by knots which appear in daily life, such as those in shoelaces and rope, a mathematical knot differs in that the ends are ...
, and became closely connected to Hans Hahn and the
Vienna Circle The Vienna Circle (german: Wiener Kreis) of Logical Empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, cha ...
. Its manifesto (1929) lists one of Reidemeister's publications in a bibliography of closely related authors. In 1925 he became full professor at
University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg (german: Albertus-Universität Königsberg) was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke Albert of Prussi ...
; he stayed until 1933, when he was regarded politically unsound by the
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
, and dismissed from his chair. Whilst there he organised the
Second Conference on the Epistemology of the Exact Sciences The Second Conference on the Epistemology of the Exact Sciences (german: 2. Tagung für Erkenntnislehre der exakten Wissenschaften in Königsberg) was held on 5–7 September 1930 in Königsberg, then located in East Prussia. It was at this conferen ...
in conjunction with journal ''
Erkenntnis ''Erkenntnis'' is a journal of philosophy that publishes papers in analytic philosophy. Its name is derived from the German word " Erkenntnis", meaning "knowledge, recognition". The journal was also linked to organisation of conferences, such as th ...
''. Blaschke managed to get a promise about Reidemeister's reappointment, and in autumn 1934 he got the chair of
Kurt Hensel Kurt Wilhelm Sebastian Hensel (29 December 1861 – 1 June 1941) was a German mathematician born in Königsberg. Life and career Hensel was born in Königsberg, East Prussia (today Kaliningrad, Russia), the son of Julia (née von Adelson) and lan ...
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 ...
. He stayed there, except for a visit to the Princeton
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 ...
in 1948–1950, until he got appointed to Göttingen University in 1955, where he stayed until his emeritation.


Works

Reidemeister's interests were mainly in
combinatorial group theory In mathematics, combinatorial group theory is the theory of free groups, and the concept of a presentation of a group by generators and relations. It is much used in geometric topology, the fundamental group of a simplicial complex having in a nat ...
,
combinatorial topology In mathematics, combinatorial topology was an older name for algebraic topology, dating from the time when topological invariants of spaces (for example the Betti numbers) were regarded as derived from combinatorial decompositions of spaces, such ...
,
geometric group theory Geometric group theory is an area in mathematics devoted to the study of finitely generated groups via exploring the connections between algebraic properties of such group (mathematics), groups and topology, topological and geometry, geometric pro ...
, and the foundations of
geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...
. His works include ''Knoten und Gruppen'' (1926), ''Einführung in die kombinatorische Topologie'' (1932), and ''Knotentheorie'' (1932). He co-edited the journal ''
Mathematische Annalen ''Mathematische Annalen'' (abbreviated as ''Math. Ann.'' or, formerly, ''Math. Annal.'') is a German mathematical research journal founded in 1868 by Alfred Clebsch and Carl Neumann. Subsequent managing editors were Felix Klein, David Hilbert, ...
'' from 1947 until 1963.Title page
of vol.274 (1986)
He was also a philosopher. His book "Das exakte Denken der Griechen" (1949) is not so well known as his mathematical work. In it he remarks that mathematical thought is "just the beginning of thought."


See also

*
Reidemeister move Kurt Werner Friedrich Reidemeister (13 October 1893 – 8 July 1971) was a mathematician born in Braunschweig (Brunswick), Germany. Life He was a brother of Marie Neurath. Beginning in 1912, he studied in Freiburg, Munich, Marburg, and Götting ...
s * Reidemeister–Singer theorem * Reidemeister torsion


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Reidemeister, Kurt 1893 births 1971 deaths 20th-century German mathematicians Scientists from Braunschweig Topologists University of Hamburg alumni Academics of the University of Vienna University of Königsberg faculty Vienna Circle