“I have Learned Non-Euclidean Geometry Just from this Book” - Some facets of the correspondence between Friedrich Engel and David Hilbert

Abstract

AbstractFriedrich Engel and David Hilbert learned to know each other at Leipzig in 1885 and exchanged letters in particular during the next 15 years which contain interesting information on the academic life of mathematicians at the end of the 19th century. In the present article we will mainly discuss a statement by Hilbert himself on Moritz Pasch’s influence on his views of geometry, and on personnel politics concerning Hermann Minkowski and Eduard Study but also Engel himself.