RePoSS #11: The Mathematics of Niels Henrik Abel: Continuation ...

32 Chapter 2. Biography of NIELS HENRIK ABEL
Volume Number Time of publication
1 1 February–March 1826
1 2 June 1826
1 3
1 4 February–March 1827
2 1 5 June 1827
2 2 20 September 1827
2 3
2 4 12 January 1828
3 1 25 March 1828
3 2 26 May 1828
3 3
3 4 3 December 1828
4 1 25 January 1829
4 2 28 March 1829
4 3
4 4 10 June 1829
Table 2.1: Time of publications for CRELLE’S Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik
1826–1829. Compiled from SYLOW’S notes in (N. H. Abel, 1881, vol. 2).
The Berlin mathematical scene. In Berlin, mathematics was cultivated in three dis-
tinct — and largely disjoint — circles: the academy, the university, and the circle around
CRELLE. The Academy had played its role in the era of academies when it had housed
such eminent mathematicians as EULER and LAGRANGE. However, after LAGRANGE
had moved to Paris in 1784 without being suitably replaced, mathematics at the Academy
inevitably and irreversibly declined. 51
In the first ordinary mathematics chair at the university — which had only opened
in 1810 — J. G. TRALLES (1763–1822) had resided. The brothers A. VON HUMBOLDT
(1769–1859) and W. VON HUMBOLDT (1767–1835), who had been instrumental in bring-
ing the university into being, had made efforts to call GAUSS to the chair, but he had
to settle for less; TRALLES’ academic record shows a marked bias for applied mathe-
matics, and during his reign pure mathematics was not well off in Berlin not was it
elsewhere in Germany except for Göttingen. 52 Besides the ordinary professor, a num-
ber of extraordinary professors and Privatdozenten 53 offered mathematics courses. Af-
ter TRALLES’ death in 1822, E. H. DIRKSEN (1788–1850), who together with OHM had
previously served as Privatdozenten, was appointed to the ordinary professorship.
The real forum for pure mathematics in Berlin in the 1820s centered around CRELLE
and condensed around the Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik once it was
initiated in 1826. CRELLE organized weekly meetings of a group of young mathemati-
51 (Knobloch, 1998).
52 (Biermann, 1988, 20–21), (Rowe, 1998)
53 These Privatdozenten include EYTELWEIN, GRUSON, LEHMUS, and LUBBE.