Heterodox
Here is a story about David Hilbert torwards the end of his career: "Otto Neugebauer, now an associate professor, was placed at the head of the Mathematical Institute. He held the famous chair for exactly one day, refusing in a stormy session in the Rector's office to sign the required loyalty declaration. The position of the head of the Mathematical Institute passed to Weyl. Although his wife was part Jewish, he was one of those who thought that something might yet be salvaged. All during the bitter uncertain spring and summer of 1933 he worked, wrote letters, interviewed officials of the government. But nothing could be changed. By late summer nearly everyone was gone. Weyl, vacationing with his family in Switzerland, still considered returning to Göttingen in the hope that
Topics:
Robert Vienneau considers the following as important:
This could be interesting, too:
Robert Vienneau writes The Emergence of Triple Switching and the Rarity of Reswitching Explained
Robert Skidelsky writes Lord Skidelsky to ask His Majesty’s Government what is their policy with regard to the Ukraine war following the new policy of the government of the United States of America.
Matias Vernengo writes The behavior of the nominal exchange rate between the Brazilian Real and the dollar in 2024
Mike Norman writes An Explanation Of Why Taxes Don’t Fund Spending—And Why Elon Musk Is Wrong About The US Government Deficit — Jim Byrne
Here is a story about David Hilbert torwards the end of his career:
"Otto Neugebauer, now an associate professor, was placed at the head of the Mathematical Institute. He held the famous chair for exactly one day, refusing in a stormy session in the Rector's office to sign the required loyalty declaration. The position of the head of the Mathematical Institute passed to Weyl. Although his wife was part Jewish, he was one of those who thought that something might yet be salvaged. All during the bitter uncertain spring and summer of 1933 he worked, wrote letters, interviewed officials of the government. But nothing could be changed.
By late summer nearly everyone was gone. Weyl, vacationing with his family in Switzerland, still considered returning to Göttingen in the hope that somehow he could keep alive the great scientific tradition. In America, his many friends worried about him and wrote long letters, advising, urging, begging that he leave Germany before it was too late. Abraham Flexner offered him a position at the Institute for Advanced Study. Finally Einstein, who had already been at the newly created Institute for several years, prevailed upon the younger man to come and join him there.
In Göttingen, Hilbert was left almost alone. He kept Bernays on as his assistant at his own expense. The Foundations of Mathematics, which he and Bernays had written in collaboration, was almost ready for publication. He put away his general mathematical books and became progressively more distant. With Bernays's help, he saw Arnold Schmidt and Kurt Schütte through the doctorate. Schütte was the last of 69 mathematicians (40 of them during the years from 1900 to 1914) to receive their degrees from Hilbert. In actuality, however, all of Schütte's contacts were through Bernays. He saw Hilbert only once.
'When I was young,' Hilbert said to young Franz Rellich, one of the few remaining members of the old circle, 'I resolved never to repeat what I heard the old people say - how beautiful the old days were, how ugly the present. I would never say that when I was old. But, now, I must.'
Sitting next to the Nazis' newly appointed minister of education at a banquet, he was asked, 'And how is mathematics in Gottingen now that it has been freed of the Jewish influence?'
'Mathematics in Göttingen?' Hilbert replied. 'There is really none any more.'" -- Constance Reid. 1996. Hilbert
Here is Kurt Gödel becoming an American citizen:
"Morgeristern had many stories to tell about Gödel. One concerned the occasion when, in April 1948, Gödel became a U.S. citizen, with Einstein and Morgenstern as witnesses. Gödel was to take the routine citizenship examination, and he prepared for it very seriously, studying the United States Constitution assiduously. On the day before he was to appear, Gödel came to Morgenstern in a very excited state, saying: 'I have discovered a logical-legal possibility by which the U.S.A. could be transformed into a dictatorship.' Morgenstern realized that, whatever the logical merits of Gödel's argument, the possibility was extremely hypothetical in character, and he urged Godel to keep quiet about his discovery at the examination. The next morning, Morgenstern drove Gödel and Einstein from Princeton to Trenton, where the citizenship proceedings were to take place. Along the way Einstein kept telling one amusing anecdote after another in order to distract Gödel, apparently with great success. At the office in Trenton, the official was properly impressed by Einstein and Morgenstern, and invited them to attend the examination, normally held in private. He began by addressing Gödel: 'Up to now you have held German citizenship.' Gödel corrected him, explaining that he was Austrian. 'Anyhow', continued the official, 'it was under an evil dictatorship... but fortunately, that's not possible in America.' 'On the contrary,' Gödel cried out, 'I know how that can happen!!' All three had great trouble restraining Gödel from elaborating his discovery, so that the proceedings could be brought to their expected conclusion." -- Solomon Feferman. 1986. Gödel's life and work. In Kurt Gödel Collected Works: Volume I. Oxford University Press.
I wish these stories had no current relevance. I suppose it is encouraging of what others in the past had to overcome.