Hausdorff, Felix

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HAUSDORFF, FELIX

HAUSDORFF, FELIX (1868–1942), German mathematician. Hausdorff was born in Breslau, and was professor of mathematics at Greifswald from 1913 to 1921 and at Bonn from 1921 until his retirement in 1935. Together with his wife he committed suicide in 1942 in order to avoid the deportation order of the Gestapo. Hausdorff was an authority on set theory and its applications to sets of points and real analysis. His textbook Mengenlehre (Leipzig, 1935) is recognized as one of the great classics of set theory. The depth and simplicity of his research into fundamental problems was a source of inspiration in the rapid development of modern mathematics. Hausdorff was devoted to music and literature and published belles lettres under the pen name of Paul Mongré.

bibliography:

Poggendorff's biographisch-literarisches Handwoerterbuch der exakten Naturwissenschaften, 7a (1958), 402.

[Barry Spain]

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