We shall know: Hilbert's apology (Q1286340)

On September 8, 1930, at the meeting of the Society of German Scientists and Physicians in Königsberg, David Hilbert was made an Ehrenbürger of his native town of Königsberg. His acceptance address on the meeting was entitled ``Naturerkennen und Logik'' and was published in [Naturwissenschaften 18, 959--963 (1930; JFM 56.0050.01)] (reprinted in [Gesammelte Abhandlungen. Bd. 3, 378--387 (1935)]). The Königsberg colleagues Reidemeister and Szegö made arrangements for Hilbert to repeat a précis of the last part of his acceptance address over the local radio station. The text of the radio broadcast has never been printed. Now the author publishes it together with the translation into English and with the author's commentaries. The last part of the paper contains a discussion concerning the famous last sentence of the broadcast text ``Wir müssen wissen -- wir werden wissen'' and the not less famous paper of \textit{K. Gödel} [``Über formal unentscheidbare Sätze der \textit{Principia Mathematica} und verwandter Systeme. I'', Monatsh. Math. Phys. 38, 173--198 (1931; Zbl 0002.00101; JFM 57.0054.02)], which was received about a month later (November 17, 1930) and in some sense refuted this Hilbert sentence. References are given for some further reading, especially on this discussion topic, e.g. [J. Symb. Log. 53, No. 3, 961--974 (1988; Zbl 0661.03046)] by \textit{S. G. Simpson}.