Failing Phoenix: Tauber, Helly, and Viennese life insurance (Q1889960)

The very well documented and richly illustrated paper gives detailed biographies of two Vienna mathematicians of Jewish descent, Alfred Tauber, known for the Tauberian Theorems, and Edu\-ard Helly, a noted contributor to early functional analysis. Although the two men were highly qualified and regarded as mathematicians they had to earn their living, during considerable periods of their careers, as insurance mathematicians. While Tauber's career was additionally damaged by his peculiar personality traits, Helly had to spend 5 years as a prisoner of war in Russia. Both had connections with the famous Vienna Phoenix life insurance company that went bancrupt with a scandal in 1936. This influenced the fate of other noted mathematicians connected to insurance mathematicians as well, which are mentioned passingly: Z. W. Birnbaum, S. Vajda and E. Lukacz. All of the five mathematicians discussed were, as Jews, even more affected by the Nazi takeover in Austria in 1938. Except for Tauber they managed to emigrate, while Tauber died in the Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt.