Philanthropies funded by the Rockefeller family have been prominent in the social history of the twentieth century for their involvement in medicine and applied science. This book provides the first detailed study of their relatively brief but nonetheless influential foray into the field of mathematics. The careers of a generation of pathbreakers in modern mathematics, such as S.Banach, B.L.van der Waerden and Andre Weil, were decisively affected by their becoming fellows of the Rockefeller-funded International Education Board in the 1920s. To help promote cooperation between physics and mathematics Rockefeller funds supported the erection of the new Mathematical Institute in Gottingen between 1926 and 1929, while the rise of probability and mathematical statistics owes much to the creation of the Institut Henri Poincare in Paris by American philanthropy at about the same time. This account draws upon the documented evaluation processes behind these personal and institutional involvements of philanthropies. It not only sheds light on important events in the history of mathematics and physics of the 20th century but also analyzes the comparative developments of mathematics in Europe and the United States. Several of the documents are given in their entirety as significant witnesses to the gradual shift of the centre of world mathematics to the USA. This shift was strengthened by the Nazi purge of German and European mathematics after 1933 to which the Rockefeller Foundation reacted with emergency programs that subsequently contributed to the American war effort. The general historical and political background of the events discussed in this book is the mixture of competition and cooperation between the various European countries and the USA after World War I, and the consequences of the Nazi dictatorship after 1933. Ideological positions of both the philanthropists and mathematicians mattered heavily in that process. Cultural bias in the selection of fellows and of disciplines supported, and the economic predominance of American philanthropy, led among other things to a restriction of the programs to Europe and America, to an uneven consideration of European candidates, and to preferences for Americans. Political self-isolation of the Soviet Union contributed to an increasing alienation of that important mathematical culture from Western mathematics. By focussing on a number of national cultures the investigation aims to represent a step toward a true inter-cultural comparison in mathematics."

Philanthropies funded by the Rockefeller family have been prominent in the social history of the twentieth century for their involvement in medicine and applied science. This book provides the first detailed study of their relatively brief but nonetheless influential foray into the field of mathematics. The careers of a generation of pathbreakers in modern mathematics, such as S.Banach, B.L.van der Waerden and Andre Weil, were decisively affected by their becoming fellows of the Rockefeller-funded International Education Board in the 1920s. To help promote cooperation between physics and mathematics Rockefeller funds supported the erection of the new Mathematical Institute in Gottingen between 1926 and 1929, while the rise of probability and mathematical statistics owes much to the creation of the Institut Henri Poincare in Paris by American philanthropy at about the same time. This account draws upon the documented evaluation processes behind these personal and institutional involvements of philanthropies. It not only sheds light on important events in the history of mathematics and physics of the 20th century but also analyzes the comparative developments of mathematics in Europe and the United States. Several of the documents are given in their entirety as significant witnesses to the gradual shift of the centre of world mathematics to the USA. This shift was strengthened by the Nazi purge of German and European mathematics after 1933 to which the Rockefeller Foundation reacted with emergency programs that subsequently contributed to the American war effort. The general historical and political background of the events discussed in this book is the mixture of competition and cooperation between the various European countries and the USA after World War I, and the consequences of the Nazi dictatorship after 1933. Ideological positions of both the philanthropists and mathematicians mattered heavily in that process. Cultural bias in the selection of fellows and of disciplines supported, and the economic predominance of American philanthropy, led among other things to a restriction of the programs to Europe and America, to an uneven consideration of European candidates, and to preferences for Americans. Political self-isolation of the Soviet Union contributed to an increasing alienation of that important mathematical culture from Western mathematics. By focussing on a number of national cultures the investigation aims to represent a step toward a true inter-cultural comparison in mathematics."

This book examines the historically unique conditions under which the International Congress of Mathematicians took place in Oslo in 1936. This Congress was the only one on this level to be held during the period of the Nazi regime in Germany (1933-1945) and after the wave of emigrations from it. Relying heavily on unpublished archival sources, the authors consider the different goals of the various participants in the Congress, most notably those of the Norwegian organizers, and the Nazi-led German delegation. They also investigate the reasons for the absence of the proposed Soviet and Italian delegations. In addition, aiming to shed light onto the mathematical dimension of the Congress, the authors provide overviews of the nineteen plenary presentations, as well as their planning and development. Biographical information about each of the plenary speakers rounds off the picture. The Oslo Congress, the first at which Fields Medals were awarded, is used as a lens through which the reader of this book can view the state of the art of mathematics in the mid-1930s.

The emigration of mathematicians from Europe during the Nazi era signaled an irrevocable and important historical shift for the international mathematics world. "Mathematicians Fleeing from Nazi Germany" is the first thoroughly documented account of this exodus. In this greatly expanded translation of the 1998 German edition, Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze describes the flight of more than 140 mathematicians, their reasons for leaving, the political and economic issues involved, the reception of these emigrants by various countries, and the emigrants' continuing contributions to mathematics. The influx of these brilliant thinkers to other nations profoundly reconfigured the mathematics world and vaulted the United States into a new leadership role in mathematics research.

Based on archival sources that have never been examined before, the book discusses the preeminent emigrant mathematicians of the period, including Emmy Noether, John von Neumann, Hermann Weyl, and many others. The author explores the mechanisms of the expulsion of mathematicians from Germany, the emigrants' acculturation to their new host countries, and the fates of those mathematicians forced to stay behind. The book reveals the alienation and solidarity of the emigrants, and investigates the global development of mathematics as a consequence of their radical migration.

An in-depth yet accessible look at mathematics both as a scientific enterprise and human endeavor, "Mathematicians Fleeing from Nazi Germany" provides a vivid picture of a critical chapter in the history of international science.

Dieser Band enthalt die Vorlesung Ausgewahlte Kapitel aus der Funktionenlehre, die Karl Weierstrass im Sommersemester 1886 an der Berliner Universitat gehalten hat. Sie war von ihm als Erganzung seiner turnusmassigen Vorlesung "Einleitung in die Theorie der analytischen Funktionen" konzipiert worden, und er hielt sie nur dieses eine Mal. Inhaltliche Schwerpunkte sind der Weierstrasssche Approximationssatz (mit Verallgemeinerungen auf unstetige Funktionen mittels des Cantorschen Begriffs des ausseren Inhalts einer beschrankten Punktmenge) und eine Einfuhrung in die Theorie der Weierstrassschen "analytischen Gebilde." Der editierte Text, dem eine Autobiographie zugrunde liegt, enthalt zahlreiche historische und methodologische Reflexionen. Die Vorlesung, der Kommentar des Herausgebers sowie die vier im Anhang enthaltenen fotomechanischen Nachdrucke von Arbeiten der Jahre 1857 bis 1880 verdeutlichen in besonderem Masse Weierstrass' Beitrag zur strengen Begrundung der Analysis."

Als Schuler von KARL WEIERSTRASS zu Beginn unseres Jahrhunderts an der Ausgabe der Werke ihres Lehrers arbeiteten, ging es ihnen vor allem darum, den nachfolgenden Generationen den Schatz der unveroffentlichten Weierstrassschen Vorlesungen uber elliptische und Abelsche Funktionen sowie uber Variationsrechnung zu uberliefern. Dass die Vorlesungen uber allgemeine Funktionentheorie nicht in den Editionsplan auf genommen wurden, durfte nicht zuletzt auch damit im Zusammenhang gestanden haben, dass deren Wirkung bereits allenthalben erkennbar und unwiderruflich war. Was den Zeitgenossen von WEIERSTRASS nicht erforderlich schien, will uns heute UD verzichtbar scheinen, wenn wir uns als Historiker und als Mathematiker der grossen Gestalt von KARL WEIERSTRASS nahern wollen. Was aber den Zeitgenossen noch recht leicht gefallen ware - eine moglichst exakte historische Dokumentation des Weierstrass schen Beitrages zur strengen Begrundung der Analysis -, erfordert heute einen erhohten Aufwand an geistiger Arbeit, bedingt einen kritischen Vergleich der nur bruchstuckhaft auf uns gekommenen und zumeist nicht autorisierten Nachschriften, ein Einfuhlen in die personlichen und wissenschaftlichen Umstande des Weierstrassschen Wirkens. Die allgemein anerkannte pragende Bedeutung des Weierstrassschen Grundlagen beitrages fur die moderne Mathematik widerspiegelt sich bisher in der internationalen mathematikhistorischen Literatur nur unzureichend. Es ist deshalb sehr zu begrussen, dass es der Herausgeber mit der Edition der von WEIERSTRASS nur einmal gehaltenen Vorlesung "Ausgewahlte Kapitel aus der Funktionenlehre" (1886) unternommen hat, jene Lucke schliessen zu helfen."

Taking advantage of documents never before available from the archives of the East German Communist Party and the Ministry for State Security, and drawing on interviews with, among others, the legendary spy chief Markus Wolf and members of the East German Politburo, "Science under Socialism" is the first book to examine the role of science and technology in the former German Democratic Republic. The result is a multi-layered analysis of the scientific enterprise that provides a fascinating glimpse into what it took to construct a new socialist state and the role science and technology played in it.

The book is organized around general policy issues, institutions, disciplines, and biographies. An international cast of contributors (Americans, former East Germans, and former West Germans) take the reader on a journey from the view of science policymakers, to the construction of "socialist" institutions for science, to the role of espionage in technology transfer, to the social and political context of the chemical industry, engineers, nuclear power, biology, computers, and finally the career trajectories of scientists through the vicissitudes of twentieth-century German history.

By providing a historical understanding of the scientific enterprise in East Germany, "Science under Socialism" also offers the fullest account we have of the effect of state socialism on the development of science.