Emmy Noether, Hermann Weyl, and the Göttingen Academy. A marginal note (Q286036)

In this article, a newly found document is presented showing that Hermann Weyl tried to have Emmy Noether elected as a member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences (then called Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen). In a letter to the secretary of the Göttingen Academy, A. R. W. Kühn, Weyl wrote on 4 December 1932: ``\dots one has to expect a nearly unanimous refusal by the philogogical-historical class [of the Academy] of the proposal to elect Miss Noether as a member of the Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften. Since I have no interest in useless demonstrations, I therefore retract this proposal -- as much as I regret in the interest of our Gesellschaft that it prefers to forgo the collaboration of such a strong productive force for reasons which seem to me besides the point and not cogent.''NEWLINENEWLINEAlthough not said explicitly, the most important of the mentioned ``reasons'' certainly was that Noether was a woman. Emmy Noether never became member of any Academy of Sciences. In 1932, she would have been the first female full member of the Göttingen Academy.