Jewish mathematicians in German-speaking academic culture

Photo: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Lück, Prof. Dr. Mario Ohlberger and Prof. Dr. Joachim Cuntz (WWU).

This exhibition, organised in cooperation with the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at WWU and the Research Transfer Office, was shown from 23 November to 9 December 2009 in the foyer of the lecture building at 10-12 Hindenburgplatz in Münster. Münster’s Jewish community was represented at the opening ceremony. In their speeches the speakers talked about their personal experiences with the topic. The touring exhibition from the History Department of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt on Main illustrates in nine stages the activities of Jewish mathematicians in Germany – from the legal and political equality of status accorded to Jewish citizens in the 19th century to their persecution and expulsion under the Nazis. The exhibition shows how, before the First World War and in the Weimar Republic after it, Jewish mathematicians increasingly played a key role in all fields of mathematics and its culture, and it also provides a reminder of the emigration, flight and murder that took place after 1933.

www.juedische-mathematiker.de