About Karl Weierstrass

Curriculum Vitae 1815/X/31 Born in Ostenfelde (Westfalia) 1829-1834 Gymnasium Theodorianum in Paderborn 1838 Studies in Münster 1841 Trial year in Münster 1842 Teacher in Deutsch-Krone (West Prussia) and Braunsberg (East Prussia) 1854 Honorary doctorate of the University of Königsberg 1856 Teacher at the Berlin Gewerbeinstitut (Inst. of Trade) 1856/X Extraordinary professor at the Berlin University 1856/XI Full member of the Berlin Academy 1864 Full professor at the Berlin University 1873/X-1874/X Rector of the Berlin University 1894 First volume of Weierstrass's Works published 1897/II/19 Died in Berlin

Literature about Weierstrass

1. Behnke, H.; Kopfermann, K. (Hrsg.): Festschrift zur Gedächtnisfeier für Karl Weierstraß. 1815-1965. (Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen; 33). Köln und Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1966
2. Biermann, K.R.:Karl Weierstraß. Ausgewählte Aspekte seiner Biographie. Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik 223 (1966) 191-220
3. Bölling, R.; Cierzynski, T.: Karl Weierstraß zum 175. Geburtstag : Ausstellung im Karl-Weierstraß-Institut für Mathematik, 1991 Berlin, Karl-Weierstraß-Inst. für Mathematik, Report
4. Bölling, R.: A birthday present. The Mathematical Intelligencer 11(4) (1989) 20-25
5. Bölling, R.: Briefwechsel zwischen Karl Weierstraß und Sofja Kowalewskaja. Herausgegeben, eingeleitet und kommentiert von R. Bölling. Berlin: Akademie Verl., 1993
6. Bölling, R.: Das Fotoalbum für Weierstraß. Kommentiert von Reinhard Bölling. Braunschweig; Wiesbaden: Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn, 1994
7. Dugac, P.:Éléments d'analyse de Karl Weierstrass. Archive for History of Exact Sciences 10 (1973) 41-176
8. Lampe, E.: Karl Weierstraß. Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung 6 (1899) 27-44
9. Weierstraß, K.: Mathematische Werke von Karl Weierstraß. Bd. 1: Abhandlungen I. Herausgegeben unter Mitwirkung einer von der Königlich Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften eingesetzten Commission. Berlin: Mayer & Müller, 1915

Students, Colleagues, and Friends

On 31 October 1885 Karl Weierstrass celebrated his 70th birthday. On this occasion, his students, colleagues, and friends presented him a photo album to express their thanks and congratulations.

Many of them had studied in Berlin or, after having finished their studies, came to Berlin to attend lectures by Weierstrass or his colleagues Ernst Kummer and Leopold Kronecker at the Friedrich Wilhelm University. It was thanks to these scientists that Berlin could take an outstanding position in mathematics in the second half of the 19th century.

Among these were Carl Runge, Georg Cantor, Charles Hermite, Hermann Amandus Schwarz, Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya, Goesta Mittag-Leffler, and Lazarus Fuchs.

"To Stockholm and Back - A Rediscovered Portrait of Karl Weierstraß", by Reinhard Boelling

"In the literature, one usually comes across the same old, well known portraits of important personalities of days gone by. Therefore, a hither to unknown, or perhaps forgotten, portrait of Karl Weierstrass [to the right], which I recently discovered, may well be of interest. The one hundredth anniversary of the death of this famous Berlin mathematician is celebrated on 19th February 1997. It seems therefore appropriate to publish this picture in that journal, to which Weierstraß contributed for many years as an author and later as its co-editor.

The portrait was done in 1895 by the painter, designer and sculptor Conrad Fehr (1854-1933), when Weierstraß was already 80 years old. At that time, Weierstraß was confined to a wheelchair and no longer active. In that same year he could see the second volume of his collected works appearing. On his 80th birthday, Weierstraß sat in his chair and received tributes from students, friends and colleagues (but only for two hours, on the strict orders of his doctor). He showed signs of physical discomfort but was still quick-witted and reciprocated appropriately to the speeches made.

The painting was discovered in the following way: The oil painting of Weierstraß on his 80th birthday by R. von Voigtländer is well known (see [1]). However, it has only rarely been mentioned that Fehr too made an etching which was commissioned by students and friends of Weierstraß and presented to him on his birthday. In preparation for the coming centenary celebrations, I looked for this etching in the Mittag-Leffler Institute in Djursholm, Sweden but only found a photograph of a Weierstraß portrait, on which Fehr's signature was clearly legible. Was this the picture I was looking for? It didn't look like an etching. Although G. Mittag-Leffler had definitely received it at one time, the etching was nowhere to be found. I then heard that the copperplate etching gallery in Berlin does actually possess a portrait done by Fehr in 1895. This picture was published in [2] but without any mention of Fehr or the year 1895. It is, however, without doubt, the etching in question. The photograph in Djursholm, however, is of a quite different portrait. Fehr must have made two portraits - could the second be found anywhere?

And, sure enough, I found the original in the archives of the art collection at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. It has been reproduced here after the photograph found in Djursholm (by kind permission of the Mittag-Leffler Institute). It is a pastel drawing dome in 1895 by Fehr (103 cm x 108 cm); some details which are no longer clear on the original (e.g. Fehr's signature) can, however, clearly still be seen on the photograph. The picture was exhibited in 1901 at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition (it was listed in the catalogue, but not depicted). In October of the same year, Fehr presented the picture to the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin."

- Reinhard Boelling

Photos

The photos are taken from the book [6] with kind permission of the publisher Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn, Wiesbaden, the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, and Dr. Reinhard Boelling, University of Potsdam.

Further Information

The The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive at the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland has an entry on Weierstraß, which contains further information and links to yet other online sources on Weierstraß.