``Mathematics knows no races'': a political speech that David Hilbert planned for the ICM in Bologna in 1928 (Q316839)

The International Conference of Mathematicians (ICM) in Bologna in 1928 was the first after the Great War (World War I), where mathematicians from Germany and Austria were allowed again to participate. The head of the Germans was David Hilbert, who had prepared two speeches, a mathematical plenary talk about ``Problems of laying foundations for mathematics'', which was published, and a political speech. The latter one exists only as a manuscript in the handwriting of Käthe Hilbert. It is three pages long, the author presents it in its German original as well as in an English translation. The German original is located in the SUB Göttingen, Cod.\,Ms.\,Hilbert 494:\,19. This manuscript includes the remarkable sentence ``Mathematics knows no races'', and this in 1928! The author presents a detailed analysis, whether this speech was held or not, about Hilbert's appearance in Bologna, the French-German conflict, anti-semitism in general and especially in Göttingen, and Hilbert's political opinion. The last chapter is dedicated to \textit{C. Reid}'s book on Hilbert [Hilbert. With an appreciation of Hilbert's mathematical work by Hermann Weyl. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag (1970; Zbl 0192.32601)]. It was very influential though it is no scientific biography and is not backed with references. There are several events which were ``misrepresented in Reid's book''. But, Reid's biography on Hilbert is widely accepted. This article is of high interest for everybody who is engaged in the history of mathematics in the first half of the 20th century.