Moritz Abraham Stern
Moritz ( Moriz also ) Abraham Stern ( born June 29, 1807 in Frankfurt am Main, † January 30, 1894 in Zurich ) was a mathematician and the first Jewish professor at a German university.
Childhood and youth
Stern was the son of Frankfurt wine merchant and protected Jews Süskind Abraham Stern (1764-1838) and his wife Eva Vogel tear ( 1775-1859 ). Both the family of the father and the mother were among the long-established Jewish families of Frankfurt. Stern was in his parents' home by private tutors comprehensive education. His father taught him in Hebrew, Wolf Heidenheim (1757-1832) in Oriental languages and in the Talmud and Torah.
Even the secular culture of his time was taken into account: Salomon Feibel (later Abraham Geiger taught ) taught him Latin and Greek, a Mr. Crailsheim and especially Michael Creizenach ( 1789-1842 ) taught him mathematics. Unlike in many other Jewish families of the time, the reading of religious texts was not allowed in the home star. Stern read the romantics and especially enjoyed the novels of Caroline and Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué.
Study
Stern moved in the fall of 1826, the University of Heidelberg, enrolled on the advice of the Gaussian pupil Michel tear ( 1805-1869 ) in the summer semester 1827 in Göttingen, where he studied mathematics under Carl Friedrich Gauss and Bernhard Friedrich Thibaut, he heard physics and chemistry and beyond classical languages at Karl Müller Ottfried.
On January 13, 1829, he was with highest honors a doctorate degree. His examiner was Gauss, who was with the star test, as Thibaut was unable to attend for health reasons, is skipped. His dissertation observationum in fractiones continuas specimen handed a star on March 5, 1829. After the master's examination on August 17, 1829, he received the venia docendi and taught as a Privatdozent in Göttingen.
Career
Although Jews in the German states were ruled by anti -Semitic laws from state service and star in principle baptism, Heine's oft-quoted " Entreebillett to European culture " refused, he trusted that with the progress of the emancipation of the Jews eliminated the non-admission to the academic offices of state must. In fact, however, went up to his appointment as full professor as much as 30 years. He was appointed on 14 September 1848 Associate Professor, until July 30, 1859 came the appointment as full professor at the Georg-August -Universität Göttingen. Stern was sworn in along with Bernhard Riemann.
Stern was awarded the 1838 prize of the Danish Society of Sciences for the essay Concerning the resolution of the transcendental equations ( in: Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, Vol 22, 1841, pp. 1-62 ), in 1840 the price of the Belgian Academy of Sciences Recherches sur la for the essay théorie of Résidus quadratiques ( in: Mémoires COURONNES par l' Académie des Sciences de Belgique, vol 15, 1841). In 1859 he became a member of the Royal. Bavarian Academy of Sciences, 1862 Member of the Royal. Society of Sciences in Göttingen.
1884 quit his star serving in Göttingen, and went to his son, the historian Alfred Stern, to Bern and in 1887 to Zurich, where he died at the home of the son on 30 January 1894.
Stern was not outstanding mathematician and has founded no school. To him today still remember the star next to road in Göttingen, the star - Brocot tree, which played an important role in the calculation of mechanical translations before the computer age, and the star sequence.
The Frankfurt reform Friends
Under the leadership of Theodor Creizenach (1818-1877) in 1842 constituted about 20 Jewish men to gather to solve " the conflict between the religious ordinances of Judaism and the claims of practical life ." They founded the Frankfurt association of the friends of reform, the first religiously radical group of German Jewry, who was also star. The leading rabbis of the German Jews, all distanced themselves from the Frankfurt Reform friends. The number of members had quickly achieved with only 45 people to peak, and after the club came in December 1845 with his last statement, he went out. In the public debate star defended as the only member of the Reform Club in full and signed, sometimes polemical articles. Stern felt obliged to contribute to the renewal of the solidified in his eyes and ossified Judaism and held the reform for the first "progress [ ... ] that is done in Judenthume since Mendelssohn ".