Max-Planck-Institut für Mathematik. Historical notes on the new Research Institute at Bonn (Q802537)

The author traces the pre-history of the newly established Max-Planck- Institut für Mathematik (MPI) in Bonn and describes its first years. He begins by telling Herman Weyl's emigration in 1933 from Göttingen to the Institute for Advanced Study, the institutional inspiration which Friedrich Hirzebruch received when visiting this Institute in 1952-54, and his ensuing creation in 1957 of the Bonn Mathematische Arbeitstagung. Parallelly, he follows the creation of the Mathematische Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach in 1944 and the efforts (all involving Hirzebruch) to secure its continuation, to create a European mathematical institute under the EURATOM, and to create an institute under the Max- Planck-Gesellschaft (the latter two in vain, for reasons which are analyzed in the Max-Planck-case). The real prehistory of the MPI begins with the creation in 1969 of ''Sonderforschungsbereich 40, Theoretische Mathematik'', at the Bonn University, sponsored by the West German Research Council (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). The MPI was created (with Hirzebruch as director) to solve the problem how to make this succesful but explicitly temporary institution survive. The official start was in 1981, and complete transfer of tasks and ressources will have taken place by the end of 1985. The relative importance of fixed research staff, visiting researchers and conferences at the various institutions as well as the degree of connectedness to university teaching are described. Finally, the results of the 1983/84 working term at the MPI, the contents of the 25th Arbeitstagung in 1984, and the immediate prospects for the activity of the MPI are sketched.