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Mathematics at Gottingen Under the Nazis

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Mathematics at Gottingen Under the Nazis Mathematics at Göttingen under the Nazis Saunders Mac Lane The Mathematical Institute in Göttingen in 1931 losophy on the Basis of Modern Science”. His suc- had an outstanding tradition: Gauss, Riemann, cessor, Hermann Weyl, lectured widely on dif- Dirichlet, Felix Klein, Minkowski and Hilbert. It ferential geometry, algebraic topology and on the was located in a new and ample building (thanks philosophy of mathematics (on which I wrote up to the Rockefeller Foundation, which had also lecture notes). From his seminar on group rep- provided such a building for mathematics at resentations, I learned much (e.g., on the use of Paris). The library was ample, linear transformations), but I failed to listen to and included a famous thesis his urging that algebraists should study the filling a trunk and giving an ex- structure of Lie algebras. I also was not con- ...a dynamic plicit construction “by ruler and vinced by his assertion that set theory involved compass”. The faculty was too much “sand”. Edmund Landau (professor and small (by present standards) since 1909) lectured to large audiences with his but superb, with a large repre- accustomed polished clarity—and with assis- successful sentation of young people. tants to wash off used (rolling) blackboards. model of a Before my time, many Amer- Richard Courant, administrative head of the In- ican mathematicians (most re- stitute, lectured and managed the many assis- top cently H. B. Curry) had studied tants working on the manuscript of the Courant- in Göttingen. Here I will sum- Hilbert book. Gustav Herglotz delivered mathematical marize my own experiences eloquently his insightful lectures on a wide va- there, quoting at some length riety of topics: Lie groups, mechanics, geomet- center... from a few letters which I wrote rical optics, functions with a positive real part. at the time (1933), since they Felix Bernstein taught statistics, but left in De- record my reactions on the spot. cember 1932 before the deluge struck. These In 1931, after graduating from Yale and spend- were then the ordentliche professors in Göttin- ing a vaguely disappointing year of graduate gen. study at Chicago, I was searching for a really first- The ausserordentliche Professoren (with much class mathematics department which would also less prestige) included Paul Bernays, Paul Hertz include mathematical logic. I found both in Göt- and Emmy Noether. Hertz lectured on causality tingen. and physics (the famous Physical Institutes, with Hilbert had retired from his professorship, but Max Born, Richard Pohl and James Franck were still lectured once a week on “Introduction to Phi- right next door). Paul Bernays worked with Hilbert in logic and on the preparation of the prospective Hilbert-Bernays book Grundlagen Saunders Mac Lane is Max Mason Distinguished Service der Mathematik. He also taught (with less en- Professor Emeritus of the University of Chicago. thusiasm) the famous Felix Klein course Ele- 1134 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 42, NUMBER 10 mentary Mathematics from the Higher Stand- In 1931, Germany faced massive economic point (intended chiefly for future gymnasium and political problems. The Great Depression had teachers). Emmy Noether (whom Weyl regarded caused much unemployment in Germany, and as his equal) taught enthusiastic but obscure many Germans still recalled clearly the painful courses on her current research interests (e.g., postwar inflation. The German chancellor (Brun- on group representations and on algebras). Her ing) did not have a secure majority in the Re- inspired students included Ernst Witt and Oswald ichstag, so he ruled by emergency decrees. The Teichmüller. people I knew were concerned by these issues There were many young Privatdozenten and and often had liberal or left-leaning sympathies, Assistenten, including Hans Lewy, from whom I but I recall no one who correctly foresaw the fu- learned about P.D.E., Otto Neugebauer (history ture. I arrived in Germany first in Berlin to learn of mathematics) and Arnold Schmidt (logic), as German and to absorb the culture (e.g., Bertold well as Herbert Busemann, Werner Fenchel, Franz Brecht and the Drei Groschen Opera). There com- Rellich and Wilhelm Magnus. Often we went to munists and social democrats competed with the fine restaurant at the nearby railroad station Nazi storm troopers (the SA). I carefully studied for good food and discussion. There were many a pamphlet The Twenty-seven Political Parties of eager students, including Gerhard Gentzen Germany; the Weimar republic had managed to (logic), Fritz John, Peter Scherk, Olga Taussky, get politics badly fragmented. Once I settled in and Ernst Witt. Göttingen, I could note every Sunday the young The social life included a one-time dancing students with bandaged faces—they came from party at Professor Weyl’s apartment. If on a Sun- practice duels of the “color” (corps) fraternities; day you called at the palatial home of Edmund perhaps they anticipated general admiration for Landau to leave your card, that action would professors of law who sported impressive du- ensure an invitation to a subsequent Landau eling scars. Once in the winter, I defended a party, complete with competitive games. At one street urchin who had unwisely lobbed a snow- point, Landau had invited G. H. Hardy for a visit, ball at a corps student. The student thereupon so Landau went to the train to meet him. Hardy, challenged me (“Your card, please”). I had no call- in a trench coat and dark glasses, stepped down ing card on me, so declined the challenge. The from his car. Landau pounced on him and asked student responded, “Mit solchen Leuten for the latest results on the “minor arcs” used verkehren wir nicht”—“We do not associate with in analytic number theory; Hardy responded, to such people”—and indeed he did not, passing me Landau’s dismay, that he had lost all interest in often on the street with wordless disdain. Per- the subject. It turned out that the dark glasses haps I was lucky. Martin Kneser told me that in hid not Hardy, but a Landau student anxious to 1912 George Polya was in Göttingen, was chal- play a trick. lenged by a student, declined—whereupon the There were many other visitors. Paul Alexan- rector advised him to leave the university. I man- droff came to present the latest formulations of aged to stay, to my great profit. algebraic topology (as in his slim volume Ein- In 1932, German politics was turbulent with fachste Grundbegriffe). Emil Artin came from street battles in Berlin and elsewhere between Hamburg to expound the obscure beauties of the Nazi storm troopers and communist groups. class field theory. Oswald Veblen lectured (at one Then in January 1933, there was an election in meeting of the weekly colloquium) on projective which the Nazis made common cause with the relativity theory. As always, the colloquium was German National Party (led by von Papen); these preceded by tea and a display of the latest issues Nationalists probably thought that they could of journals. Richard von Mises was then a pro- control Hitler; the combined vote was sufficient fessor at Berlin (the long-time rival of Göttingen to make Hitler Reichschancellor. His speeches mathematics). He gave an evening lecture on his and his picture appeared everywhere. (somewhat ambiguous) foundation of probabil- On February 12, 1933, I took a study break to ity theory on his notion of a Kollektiv. The whole visit Weimar. On arrival, I went to the Opera Göttingen establishment listened, and then House, but tickets for the next day were all sold (Hilbert, Bernays, Bernstein, and others) de- out (it was the 50th anniversary of the death of nounced his approach. In brief, new ideas were Wagner). Fortunately, by standing outside the forcefully presented and discussed. There was Opera House the next morning, I managed to get plenty of personal contact; for example, for a pe- a ticket; the first half of the opera (Wagner, of riod I lived in Courant’s house in order to teach course) was splendid. In the intermission, I him the use of English in preparation for his walked out to the lobby. There, twenty-five feet planned visit to the U.S.A. away, stood Hitler and Göring (easy to recognize Thus the Mathematical Institute at Göttingen from their newspaper pictures). At that time (as in 1931–1932 was a dynamic and successful I did some months later), I did not fully realize model of a top mathematical center. the prospects of evil. In later years, I vividly re- OCTOBER 1995 NOTICES OF THE AMS 1135 called the sight of Hitler, but thought that it a new law about such officials summarily dismissed took place later, in May 1933. It thus later seemed all those who were Jewish, except for those ap- to me to be the one occasion where (had I car- pointed before 1914 and those who served as sol- ried a weapon) I might have personally changed diers in the First World War. In addition, dis- history. missal awaited “all those officials who are not On March 5, 1933, the government coalition at every time completely committed to the Na- held a second election, preceded by a vast pro- tional Socialist State”. paganda effort. It produced a much larger vote The effect on the Mathematical Institute was for the government. The resulting situation is de- drastic. Courant, Noether, and Bernstein were im- scribed in two letters which I wrote my mother— mediately dismissed (on April 25). In Courant’s one dated March 10, 1933, and the other un- case, his service in the First World War did not dated. (The author will provide copies of these spare him; evidently his earlier political views letters on request.) and his wide mathematical influence (inherited The first letter (10.III.33) is a tongue-in-cheek from Felix Klein) made him disliked.
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