Hans Arnold Heilbronn, 8 October 1908 - 28 April 1975

Abstract

Hans Arnold Heilbronn was born in Berlin on 8 October 1908. No doubt, his home and upbringing was one typical for the cultured German-Jewish middle class, which had in those days been thoroughly assimilated into German life. In many small ways Heilbronn’s habits, his directness, his correct manner—in the true sense of the word—his strong, genuine sense of propriety, his apparent stiffness, as well as his accent, bore witness to his German background From 1914 to 1926 the boy attended the Realgymnasium Berlin-Schmargenhof, a school comparable to an English grammar school, the prefix ‘Real’ indicating emphasis on the sciences and on modern languages, rather than the classics. In 1926 he entered university, reading mathematics, physics and chemistry, but evidently his interests veered more and more towards mathematics. As customary in Germany, the young student moved around, first attending his home university in Berlin, then going on to Freiburg and ending up in Göttingen, at that time the undisputed centre of German mathematics. One would suppose that he fitted well into the accepted pattern of student life in the Germany of those days. It was only the rebels who abhorred duelling—Heilbronn carried a duelling scar from his Göttingen days throughout his life.