A refugee scholar from Nazi Germany: Emmy Noether and Bryn Mawr College (Q2325860)

Based on documents from archives, this paper describes Emmy Noether's time at the women's college of Bryn Mawr (from November 1933 until her death in April 1935) and, in particular, how Noether's stay at Bryn Mawr was made possible. In 1933, the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German Scholars was established by the Institute of International Education in order to help suddenly unemployed German scholars to find positions in the US, and together with the Rockefeller Foundation and other institutions provided funds for that. Bryn Mawr at that time was the only US women's college providing a doctoral program in mathematics. Solomon Lefschetz, professor of mathematics in near-by Princeton, suggested to Anna Pell Wheeler, head of the mathematics department of Bryn Mawr, to invite Emmy Noether using these funds. Letters by Bryn Mawr's president Marion Edwards Park and others show that it was not easy to make this plan come true. Noether at that time hoped to get a position in Moscow, where her friend Pavel S. Alexandrov worked. Moreover, she had an offer to go to Somerville College, Oxford. However, Bryn Mawr offered her a contract for one year with the possibility of renewal, which was the more secure option for her. In addition, there was the possibility to often visit mathematics colleagues in Princeton. During her time in Bryn Mawr, Noether was active in research and built a group of graduate students and research fellows around her, among them Noether's doctoral candidate Ruth Stauffer. In a letter that Abraham Flexner, director of the Institute of Advance Study, wrote to President Park on the occasion of Noether's death, he mentions ``that a few weeks ago she remarked to Professor Veblen that the last year and a half had been the very happiest in her whole life, for she was appreciated in Bryn Mawr and Princeton as she had never been appreciated in her own country.''