scientific article; zbMATH DE number 14391

History of mathematics in the 20th century (01A60) History of mathematics at institutions and academies (non-university) (01A74) Sociology (and profession) of mathematics (01A80)

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This is the opening address the author, then chairman of the German Mathematicians' Society, delivered at the Centennial of this society in Bremen 1990. He sketches the aims and the history of the society the roots going back to a proposal of Alfred Clebsch in 1867; the official founding took place in 1891. Eminent promotors have been Georg Cantor, the inventor of set theory, Felix Klein, the leading politician on behalf of science among the mathematicians of his time, and David Hilbert, probably the greatest mathematician in our century. Within short biographies the author presents the influence these three persons having exerted on mathematics and the society. Later on he mentions the commemorative volume and in particular its chapter on the society's role during the Third Reich, written by Norbert Schappacher und Martin Kneser. In the beginning the description of the time after World War II has some autobiographical features, then the separation of the Mathematical Society in the DDR and the planned reunion are outlined. Finally the author expresses his regret that the Federal Post Minister having not issued a commemorative stamp on the occasion of the society's centennial. Since - according to Felix Klein - mathematics is art he proposes to consider a stamp being issued in this year for ``100 years of the Artist Colony Worpswede also as the stamp of the society.

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