Friedrich Schur

Frederick Henry Schur ( born January 27, 1856 in Maciejewo, Circle Krotoschin, then province of Posen, † March 18, 1932 in Breslau) was a German mathematician who dealt with geometry.

Life and work

Schur's family was originally Jewish, but became Protestant. His father owned an estate. He attended high school in Krotoschin and studied from 1875 at the University of Breslau Astronomy and Mathematics at Heinrich Schröter and Jacob Rosanes. After that he went to the University of Berlin, where he heard of Karl Weierstrass, Ernst Eduard Kummer, Leopold Kronecker and Gustav Kirchhoff and received his doctorate in 1879 at Kummer ( Geometric studies on radiation complexes first and second degree ). In 1880 he passed the teacher's exam and qualified in the same year with Felix Klein at the University of Leipzig. After that, he is a lecturer and assistant from 1884 by Felix Klein in Leipzig. In 1885 he is associate professor there in 1888 and professor at the University of Dorpat. In 1892 he was a professor for descriptive geometry and graphical statics at the RWTH Aachen and 1897 at the Technical University of Karlsruhe, where he was also Rector in 1904 /05. In 1909 he became a professor at the University of Strasbourg. After the defeat in the First World War, he is released there by the French in 1919 and professor in Breslau, where he retired in 1924.

Friedrich Schur dealt with differential geometry, transformation groups ( Lie groups ) in connection to Sophus Lie and the foundations of geometry. Many of his results, which he summarized in his book Foundations of Geometry of 1909, were included in David Hilbert's book, without it (as with the contributions of other mathematicians ) that made ​​clear enough. He also wrote a textbook of analytical geometry (1898 ) and the graphical statics (1915 ).

In 1912 he was awarded the Russian Lobachevsky Prize for his book Foundations of Geometry. In 1910 he was chairman of the German Mathematical Society. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Karlsruhe. In 1927 he was elected a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

His doctoral counts Theodor Molien and Julius Well stone. He should not be confused with the mathematician Isay Schur.

Writings (selection )

• Schur: Foundations of Geometry. Teubner, Leipzig, 1909.
• Schur: Textbook of analytical geometry.
• Schur: On the theory of finite transformation groups. Mathematische Annalen, Bd.38, 1891.