Nationality German Fields Mathematics Role Mathematician | Name Leo Konigsberger Alma mater University of Berlin Children Johann Koenigsberger | |
 | ||
Born 15 October 1837
Posen, Prussia ( 1837-10-15 ) Institutions University of Heidelberg
University of Vienna Doctoral students Karl Bopp
Jakob Horn
Edmund Husserl
Gyula Konig
Georg Alexander Pick
Alfred Pringsheim
Max Wolf Died December 15, 1921, Heidelberg, Germany Education Humboldt University of Berlin Doctoral advisor Karl Weierstrass, Ernst Kummer Similar People Karl Weierstrass, Edmund Husserl, Moritz Cantor, Alfred Pringsheim, Georg Alexander Pick | ||
Leo Königsberger (15 October 1837 – 15 December 1921) was a German mathematician, and historian of science. He is best known for his three-volume biography of Hermann von Helmholtz, which remains the standard reference on the subject.
Biography
Königsberger was born in Posen (now Poznań, Poland), the son of a successful merchant. He studied at the University of Berlin with Karl Weierstrass, where he taught mathematics and physics (1860–64). He taught at the University of Greifswald (assistant professor, 1864–66; professor, 1866–69), the University of Heidelberg (1869–75), the Technische Universität Dresden (1875-77), and the University of Vienna (1877–84) before returning to Heidelberg in 1884, where remained until his retirement in 1914.
In 1919 he published his autobiography, Mein Leben (My Life). The biography of Helmholtz was published in 1902 and 1903. He also wrote a biography of C. G. J. Jacobi.
Königsberger's own research was primarily on elliptic functions and differential equations. He worked closely with Lazarus Fuchs, a childhood friend.