Hermann Minkowski
| Hermann Minkowski | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
22 June 1864 Aleksotas, Russian Empire (now in Kaunas, Lithuania) |
| Died | 12 January 1909 (aged 44) Göttingen, German Empire |
| Nationality | German |
| Fields | Mathematician |
| Institutions | University of Göttingen and ETH Zurich |
| Alma mater | Albertina University of Königsberg |
| Doctoral advisor | Ferdinand von Lindemann |
| Doctoral students |
Constantin Carathéodory Louis Kollros Dénes Kőnig |
| Known for |
Geometry of numbers Minkowski content Minkowski diagram Minkowski's question mark function Minkowski space |
| Spouse | Auguste Adler |
| Children | Lily (1898–1983), Ruth (b. 1902-2000) |
Hermann Minkowski (22 June 1864 – 12 January 1909) was a Jewish German mathematician, professor at Königsberg, Zürich and Göttingen. He created and developed the geometry of numbers and used geometrical methods to solve problems in number theory, mathematical physics, and the theory of relativity.
Minkowski is perhaps best known for his work in relativity, in which he showed in 1907 that his former student Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity (1905), could be understood geometrically as a theory of four-dimensional space–time, since known as the "Minkowski spacetime".
Hermann Minkowski was born in Aleksotas, a village in the Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire (now incorporated into the city of Kaunas, Lithuania) to Lewin Boruch Minkowski, a merchant who subsidized the building of The Choral synagogue in Kovno, and Rachel Taubmann, both of Jewish descent. Hermann was a younger brother of the medical researcher, Oskar (born 1858). In different sources Minkowski's nationality is variously given as German, Polish, Lithuanian or Lithuanian-German, or Russian.
To escape persecution in Russia the family moved to Königsberg in 1872, where the father became involved in rag export and later in manufacture of mechanical clockwork tin toys (he operated his firm Lewin Minkowski & Son with his eldest son Max).
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