Gerhard Gentzen

Gerhard Karl Erich Gentzen (November 24, 1909, Greifswald, Germany – August 4, 1945, Prague, Czechoslovakia) was a German mathematician and logician. Gentzen was a student of Paul Bernays at the University of Göttingen. Bernays was fired as "non-Aryan" in April 1933 and therefore Hermann Weyl formally acted as his supervisor. At great risk to his career Gentzen kept in contact with Bernays until the beginning of the second world war. In November ... more

Gerhard Karl Erich Gentzen (November 24, 1909, Greifswald, Germany – August 4, 1945, Prague, Czechoslovakia) was a German mathematician and logician. Gentzen was a student of Paul Bernays at the University of Göttingen. Bernays was fired as "non-Aryan" in April 1933 and therefore Hermann Weyl formally acted as his supervisor. At great risk to his career Gentzen kept in contact with Bernays until the beginning of the second world war. In November 1933, he joined the SA to pass the state exam for teachers. In 1935, he corresponded with Fraenkel from Jerusalem and was implicated by the Nazi teachers' union as one who "keeps contacts to the Chosen People." In 1935 and 1936, Hermann Weyl, head of the Göttingen mathematics department in 1933 until his resignment under Nazi pressure, made strong efforts to bring him to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Between November 1935 and 1939 he was assistant of David Hilbert in Göttingen. To be able to take part in a congress in Paris in... less