``God's air of free research''. Jacobi's relationship to French mathematics from a political point of view (Q2855698)

The article is the second part of the author's discussion of Jacobi's argument for ``the honour of the mind of man'' (for the first part see [ibid. 21, No. 2, 112--118 (2013; Zbl 1305.01034)]). The author puts his given interpretation of Jacobi's philosophical position in a broader context. He takes into account some known, but often neglected, documents: Jacobi's lecture about the École Polytechnique in 1836 and about Descartes' in 1846 as well as the dedication of the first volume of his \textit{Collected works} to King Wilhelm IV. After analysing the dominance of French mathematics about 1830 as well as the ideology of German neohumanism, the author debates Jacobi's praising of the École Polytechnique and criticizes L. Koenigsberger for presenting parts of the lecture in a complete opposite meaning in the biography of Jacobi. Then he points out some reflections about the different role of the church in the society in France and in Germany and the political censorship in Prussia, Russia and other states. Regarding the dedication to King Wilhelm IV, he argues in some detail against its interpretation as an act of exaggerated royalism. A short look at Jacobi's activities in the so-called constitutional club closes his characterization of Jacobi as representative of neohumanism making a compromise and being in conflict with the Prussian corporative state. Some final remarks sketch how the German-French relations in mathematics were seen by F. Klein as well as by some historians of science in the 20th century.