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Teichmuller, Kahler, Vahlen, Bieberbach, Gentzen, Blaschke, Brandt, Witt....
All mathematicians, all Nazis.
Every one disgusts me.
The one that haunts me the most is Ernst Witt.
(1/11)
All mathematicians, all Nazis.
Every one disgusts me.
The one that haunts me the most is Ernst Witt.
(1/11)
To personalize the story: In 1999, I attended a talk at the JMM by Sandford L. Segal, who was finishing his book, _Mathematicians Under the Nazis_ (Princeton, 2003). Segal's talk was interesting and was mostly about Blaschke, whom he (Segal) viewed as an opportunist.
(2/11)
(2/11)
Also in the audience was J.H. Conway. In the Q&A session, Conway asked Segal about his view of Witt. I don't completely recall Segal's answer but it was somewhat vague, as if Segal had not quite made up his mind what his view of Witt was. Conway did not follow up.
(3/11)
(3/11)
I knew some of Witt's mathematics (Witt vectors, the Poincare-Birkhoff-Witt Theorem) but nothing about Witt the person. I did not look him up until years later, when it was somewhat easier to do so.
(4/11)
(4/11)
Witt's Wikipedia page is useless, but his MacTutor page is very interesting:
https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Witt/
It's difficult to say with certainty, but the page suggests that Witt was not exactly a true believer.
He wasn't exactly a flagrant opportunist either, like Blaschke.
(5/11)
https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Witt/
It's difficult to say with certainty, but the page suggests that Witt was not exactly a true believer.
He wasn't exactly a flagrant opportunist either, like Blaschke.
(5/11)
Instead, Witt seems to have just... gone along with what others, such as Teichmuller, were doing. He joined the party and the SA. But apparently he participated just so he could get back to his mathematics as quickly as possible.
(6/11)
(6/11)
Witt was singularly unable to read the room. He once showed up at Emmy Noether's home lectures wearing his SA uniform. Later in life at Princeton, he showed some people his swastika stamped drivers license, not realizing it would offend people.
(7/11)
(7/11)
Read the whole MacTutor article. We often bristle at the stereotype of the unaware academic. But Witt seems to have *lived* that stereotype.
(8/11)
(8/11)
A quote from Segal's book
"Ernst Witt seems to have actually suited a usual caricature of a mathematician - both heedless and ignorant of the world, somewhat naive, self-absorbed in his mathematical universe, truly unpolitical...
(9/11)
"Ernst Witt seems to have actually suited a usual caricature of a mathematician - both heedless and ignorant of the world, somewhat naive, self-absorbed in his mathematical universe, truly unpolitical...
(9/11)
...This is also a caricature sometimes used to explain academic reaction to the Nazis. In both cases it is almost always false. Witt is worth consideration because his life seems to show that the caricatures could, in fact, both be true."
(10/11)
(10/11)
I am not apologizing for Witt, I am truly horrified.
There probably exist living mathematicians as vile as Teichmuller or Kahler. I am thankful that, as far as I know, I don't know any.
I just hope none of us are as naive, insensitive and clueless as Witt.
End.
(11/11)
There probably exist living mathematicians as vile as Teichmuller or Kahler. I am thankful that, as far as I know, I don't know any.
I just hope none of us are as naive, insensitive and clueless as Witt.
End.
(11/11)
