Person: Behnke, Heinrich
Heinrich Behnke was a German mathematician who worked on complex analysis and wrote many articles on mathematicians.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Behnke began to work under Hecke, so when Hecke decided to accept the offer of a chair of mathematics at the newly founded university in Hamburg, Behnke was left with a difficult decision.
- Behnke now considered himself to be sufficiently secure financially to marry Aenne Albersheim in the summer of 1925.
- It was later in 1927 that Behnke received an offer of an ordinary professorship at the Westfälische Wilhelms University of Münster.
- Again Behnke faced a dilemma.
- On the one hand it was a great achievement to be offered a full professorship while still a Privatdozent, but on the other hand Münster was in a Roman Catholic region of Germany (and Behnke was a Lutheran) and it was the smallest Prussian university.
- Behnke consulted friends and colleagues before making his decision, and finally, when told that 'Münster is better than its reputation', he decided to accept.
- Behnke was an Aryan so was certainly not affected by the Civil Service Law, passed on 7 April 1933, which provided the means of removing Jewish teachers from the universities.
- Behnke was a friend of mine.
- Behnke was teaching in Münster-in-Westfalen, and he had a lot of students, about 40.
- Peter Tullen was an assistant of Behnke in Münster.
- He left for Rome in October 1933 telling Behnke that he could never return to Germany while Hitler was in power.
- Behnke however took a different course of action.
- During this time three students of Behnke were awarded their doctorates.
- Behnke wrote quite a number of joint papers with Stein during the years following World War II.
- Behnke became an editor of Mathematische Annalen in 1938.
- Behnke continued as an editor of Mathematische Annalen until the end of 1972 except, of course, for the years between 1945 and 1947 when the journal ceased publication.
- Travelling was one of Behnke's favourite pastimes and in particular he loved visiting Switzerland.
- He continued to teach at Münster and by the time the city was damaged in the first daylight bombing raid by the allies on 10 October 1943, Behnke was the only professor of mathematics left there.
- After Germany was defeated Behnke was appointed as Dean at Münster, holding this position until 1949.
- We have mentioned above Behnke's classic text written with his assistant Thullen.
- In 1956 Behnke published Vorlesungen über allgemeine Zahlentheorie Ⓣ(Lectures on the general theory of numbers) which treated elementary number theory from an algebraic point of view.
- With Hans Grauert, Behnke wrote the paper Analysis in non-compact complex spaces (1960) which was based on a lecture Behnke gave at a conference on analytic functions at Princeton in 1957.
- It is a continuation of the report by Behnke given at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Amsterdam in 1954.
- In addition to his work on complex analysis, Behnke wrote many articles on mathematicians.
Born 9 October 1898, Hamburg, Germany. Died 10 October 1979, Münster, Germany.
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Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive