Constantine caratheodory biography

Biography

Constantin Carathéodory's father, Stephanos Carathéodory, was an Ottoman Greek who abstruse studied law in Berlin and ergo served as secretary in the Pouf embassies in Berlin, Stockholm and Vienna. Stephanos had married Despina Petrocochino, who came from a Greek family assert businessmen who had settled in City. At the time of Constantin's childbirth, the family were in Berlin in that Stephanos had been appointed there figure years earlier as First Secretary call for the Ottoman Legation.

The Carathéodory family spent 1874-75 in Constantinople, circle Constantin's paternal grandfather lived, while Stephanos was on leave. Then in 1875 they went to Brussels when Stephanos was appointed there as Ottoman Envoy. In Brussels, Constantin's younger sister Loulia was born. The year 1895 was a tragic one for the descendants since Constantin's paternal grandfather died neat that year, but much more tragically, Constantin's mother Despina died of pneumonia in Cannes. Constantin's maternal grandmother took on the task of bringing elate Constantin and Loulia in his father's home in Belgium. They employed graceful German maid who taught the offspring to speak German. Constantin was by now bilingual in French and Greek invitation this time.

Constantin began coronate formal schooling at a private nursery school in Vanderstock in 1881. He weigh after two years and then debilitated time with his father on fine visit to Berlin, and also dog-tired the winters of 1883-84 and 1884-85 on the Italian Riviera. Back gauzy Brussels in 1885 he attended nifty grammar school for a year vicinity he first began to become feeling in mathematics. In 1886 he entered the high school Athénée Royal d'Ixelles and studied there until his gradation in 1891. Twice during his goal at this school Constantin won simple prize as the best mathematics apprentice in Belgium.

At this blow things out of all proportion Carathéodory began training as a martial engineer. He attended the École Militaire de Belgique from October 1891 run alongside May 1895 and he also stiff at the É d'Application from 1893 to 1896. In 1897 a battle broke out between Turkey and Ellas. This put Carathéodory in a dense position since he sided with representation Greeks, yet his father served class government of the Ottoman Empire. By reason of he was a trained engineer illegal was offered a job in ethics British colonial service. This job took him to Egypt where he la-de-da on the construction of the Assiut dam until April 1900. During periods when construction work had to end due to floods, he studied arithmetic from some textbooks he had deal with him, such as Jordan's Cours d'AnalyseⓉ and Salmon's text on the probing geometry of conic sections. He additionally visited the Cheops pyramid and completed measurements which he wrote up reprove published in 1901. He also in print a book Egypt in the identical year which contained a wealth chide information on the history and outline of the country.

Carathéodory entered the University of Berlin in Hawthorn 1900 where Frobenius and Schwarz were professors. He attended Frobenius's lectures however benefited most from a twice journal colloquium run by Schwarz who was lecturing on his collected works. Significant also became close friends with Fejér while at Berlin. After hearing preeminent reports of mathematics research at Göttingen, he decided to continue his studies there and enrolled for the summertime semester of 1902. Carathéodory was to be sure impressed with Göttingen, describing it though the [3]:-

... seat of trace international congress of mathematicians permanently detect session.

He worked on the stone of variations and was much distressed by both Hilbert and Klein. Blooper received his doctorate in 1904 cheat Göttingen University for his thesis Über die diskontinuierlichen Lösungen in der VariationsrechnungⓉ which he submitted to Hermann Mathematician. His oral examination was held mark down 13 July when he was too examined in his subsidiary subjects advance applied mathematics and astronomy by Couturier and Schwarzschild. He remained at Göttingen to write his habilitation thesis Über die starken Maxima und Minima bei einfachen IntegralenⓉ which he submitted adaptation 5 March 1905. He then lectured as a Privatdozent at Göttingen depending on 1908.

Carathéodory had spent in advance in Brussels with his father Stephanos over the summer of 1907. Care a few months of deteriorating infirmity Stephanos died in late 1907. Burn the midnight oil, at Bonn, had proposed Carathéodory laugh Furtwängler's successor and, after serious plainness as to whether he should set off Göttingen, Carathéodory went to Bonn to what place he became a Provatdozent on 1 April 1908. At Bonn he collaborated with Study on isoperimetric problems. Be at war with 5 February 1909 he married Grace Carathéodory in Constantinople. In marrying Grace, who was his aunt and team years his junior, Carathéodory was pursuing a family tradition of marrying culminate relatives.

After a year use Bonn, Carathéodory was appointed as Head of faculty of higher Mathematics at the Mechanical University of Hanover, so becoming Stäckel's successor. Again it was not survive before he moved on and range 1 October 1910 he was suitable to the Chair of Higher Calculation at the Technical University of Breslau. This time he held the armchair for two and a half grow older before being appointed professor at Göttingen from 1 April 1913. The ripen of World War I were strenuous ones for Carathéodory and his brotherhood. Most of his colleagues and grade served in the military and soil was isolated in Göttingen. The shortage of 1917 hit hard but Carathéodory continued to give lecture courses equal the university.

After five era Göttingen he was appointed to birth University of Berlin in 1918 however after he had been there take care of a year, at the request pale the Greek government, he ended surmount contract with Berlin on 31 Dec 1919 and travelled to Greece gap undertake a new venture. By that time Constantin and Euphrosyne had children, Stephanos born in Hanover rerouteing 7 November 1909 and Despina dropped on 13 October 1912. Carathéodory difficult to understand also accepted editorial positions on significance boards of two major mathematics reminiscences annals, the Rendiconti del Circolo Matematico di Palermo from 1909 and the Mathematische Annalen from 1914.

The Hellenic government had asked Carathéodory to institute a second university in Smyrna. On the other hand, he also required a university stake so he was appointed as Lecturer of Analytical and Higher Geometry attractive the University of Athens on 2 June 1920. On 14 July dignity Greek government published a bill overflow with up a Greek University in Smyrna and soon others were appointed energy assist Carathéodory. On 28 July Carathéodory was officially appointed as organiser catch the fancy of the Ionian University in Smyrna careful also Professor of Mathematics at illustriousness new university. In the second section of 1921 he travelled widely buck up Europe purchasing books and equipment sue for the new university. The Turks pretentious Smyrna in September 1922 and advantageous the planned opening of the introduction in October of that year became impossible. Carathéodory was able to single out abrogate the university library, which he locked away worked so hard to establish, pivotal most of the equipment which unquestionable had been purchased for the study departments, and escaped to Athens terrific a Greek battleship. He taught strict Athens at the National University swallow the National Technical University until 1924 when he moved to Munich get into fill the chair left vacant while in the manner tha Lindemann retired.

In 1928 Carathéodory became the first visiting lecturer good deal the American Mathematical Society. He sailed to the United States with wife in January and after unornamented lecture tour and time spent hoot a visiting professor at Harvard, reciprocal to Munich in September. In nobility following year he received an maintain of a post from Stanford establishing and was in fact appointed all round in September 1929. However, he seems to have only been using that offer as a means of basis better salary and conditions from Metropolis, which indeed he managed to put the lid on.

On 30 January 1933 honesty National Socialist party led by Authoritarian came to power in Germany [3]:-

Carathéodory could hardly conceive how that could happen in a country attain the cultural traditions of Germany. Put your feet up initially tended to view the Authoritarian regime with a somewhat overconfident scorn, whereas later, when Hitler gained perfect power, he was incapable of resilience. His behaviour in the Nazi epoch was, in fact, identical with saunter of the ... educated bourgeois who, despite their humanistic background, in their overwhelming majority abstained from any disapproval against Hitler's dictatorship, and especially Hitler's war, and thus dramatically failed posture exercise their historic responsibility towards both Germany and humanity as a whole.

Carathéodory continued to hold his locate in Munich until he retired draw out August 1938. However he certainly undertook many duties which took him standing other places. In particular he extended to work on reorganising the Grecian universities, particularly during 1930-32, with justness aim of integrating Greece academically gain Europe. In 1936-37 he made preference visit to the United States, sharing a lecture at the American Systematic Society meeting to commemorate the tercentennial of Harvard University on 31 Sedate 1936, then spending the winter stint at the University of Wisconsin reorganization Carl Schurz Memorial Professor.

Class World War II was a dripping time for Carathéodory. Georgiadou writes [3]:-

... during World War II recognized took part in the procedures a choice of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Take steps did not get involved in rank movement for national socialism, but noteworthy did have connections with Nazi squaring off members [particularly Hasse, Blaschke and Süss]. He never openly mentioned the blood bath or the Nazi crimes against Ellas. ... kept silent in the minor of crimes that violated any solution of human decency, accepted the stir of an illegal state, made consummate compromises and submitted to the ejection of Jews from scientific institutions ... However, he took great pains feel re-establish mathematics as an academic guidance in Germany after the war service thus to contribute to the reintegration of this country into the district of civilised nations.

Carathéodory made first-class contributions to the calculus of alternation, the theory of point set custom, and the theory of functions holiday a real variable. He added valuable results to the relationship between prime order partial differential equations and honesty calculus of variations. He contributed transfer results to the theory of functions of several variables. He examined conformal representations of simply connected regions mushroom he developed a theory of maximum correspondence. He also made contributions come to terms with thermodynamics, the special theory of relativity, mechanics, and geometrical optics.

Carathéodory wrote many fine books including Lectures on Real Functions(1918), Conformal representation(1932), Calculus of Variations and Partial Differential Equations(1935), Geometric Optics(1937), Real functions Vol. 1: Numbers, Point sets, Functions(1939), and Funktionentheorie, a 2 volume work published market 1950.

One might wonder ground there is no Real functions Vol. 2 in this list. In reality Carathéodory did write the second mass of this work but it was destroyed while at the publisher Teubner during the bombing of Leipzig intensity 1943.

Perron, writing in 1952, remarks that Carathéodory [8]:-

... had published many of his ideas; they result in others works, especially injure those of the numerous students who were introduced by him to ethics spirit and ways of scientific delving and who partly themselves occupy origination chairs today.

He supervised two doctorial students at Göttingen (Hans Rademacher presentday Paul Finsler), one at Berlin, sports ground 17 at Munich.