Meeting under the Integral Sign?: The Oslo Congress of Mathematicians on the Eve of the Second World War

ISBN-13: 9781470443535

Christopher D. Hollings;Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze

Opis

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 Relying heavily on unpublished archival sources, the authors consider the different goals of the various participants in the Congress, most notably those of the Norwegian organizers, and the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.

Spis treści

• Introduction: Four strategies, the prehistory of the Oslo Congress, and sources
• The politics of the Congress: The Norwegian hosts: The newcomer with historical traditions
• The German delegation: Swaying between expansionism and isolationism
• The Russian withdrawl: Isolationism out of fear and ideology
• The Italian case: Mathematics as a victim of world politics
• The Congress in the Norwegian dailies
• International mathematics shortly before and after the Second World War: A glimpse ahead and back again
• The mathematics of the Congress: Assessing the mathematics of the Congress
• The plenary lectures
• ICMI
• Conclusions regarding the mathematics of the Congress
• Appendices: Norwegian newspaper items relating to the Congress
• Letter from Heegaard to Engel, 24 July 1936
• Congress report from Neue Zurcher Zeitung, 9 August 1936
• Leitzmann's unpublished report on the Congress
• Report by E. G. Kern, the Nazi functionary in Oslo, to Nazi headquarters in Berlin, 15 August 1936
• Newspaper profile of E. G. Kern, the Nazi functionary in Oslo, 4 December 1937 (with Stormer's annotation)
• Transcription of two recommendations made by the Subcommittee on Conferences to the Organizing Committee of the planned 1940 ICM
• Transcription of an attachment to the round letter of the Organizing Committee of the planned 1940 ICM, listing the mathematicians invited
• Bibliography
• Name index
• Subject index.