David Hilbert

Lore & Background

Hilbert was born in the Province of Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia, either in Königsberg or Wehlau near Königsberg, the first of two children. He began schooling at age eight, attended the Friedrichskolleg Gymnasium, then transferred to the Wilhelm Gymnasium, graduating in early 1880. He enrolled at the University of Königsberg in autumn 1880, where he developed a lifelong friendship with Hermann Minkowski. He obtained his doctorate in 1885 under Ferdinand von Lindemann, then served as a Privatdozent at Königsberg from 1886 to 1895. In 1895, with Felix Klein's help, he became Professor of Mathematics at the University of Göttingen, where he remained for life. He married Käthe Jerosch in 1892; they had one son, Franz, who suffered from mental illness. Hilbert was baptized a Calvinist but later left the church and became agnostic.

Reader's Guide

David Hilbert's significance lies in his vast and foundational contributions across multiple branches of mathematics and physics. He solved Gordan's Problem by demonstrating Hilbert's basis theorem, proving the finiteness of generators for binary forms. In 1900, he presented a collection of problems that set a course for mathematical research of the 20th century. He adopted and defended Georg Cantor's set theory and transfinite numbers. Hilbert and his students helped establish rigor and developed tools used in modern mathematical physics. He was a co-founder of proof theory and mathematical logic. His later years were marked by pernicious anemia, which diminished his scientific output. He lived to see the Nazi purge of faculty at Göttingen in 1933, after which he remarked that the Mathematical Institute no longer existed. His epitaph bears the words he spoke in 1930: 'Wir müssen wissen, wir werden wissen' (We must know, we shall know), though Gödel's incompleteness theorems, announced the day before, challenged that view.

Did You Know?

• Hilbert was baptized and raised a Calvinist but later left the church and became agnostic.
• His only son, Franz, suffered from mental illness and was admitted to a psychiatric clinic.
• Hilbert considered Hermann Minkowski his 'best and truest friend'.
• His funeral in 1943 was attended by fewer than a dozen people, only two of whom were fellow academics.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Every kind of science, if it has only reached a certain degree of maturity, automatically becomes a part of mathematics." — David Hilbert "Aus dem Paradies, das Cantor uns geschaffen, soll uns niemand vertreiben können." — David Hilbert "No one shall expel us from the paradise that Cantor has created." — David Hilbert "The art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality." — David Hilbert