Banach and Nikodym on the bench in Kraków again (Q2410950)

The authors had a leading role in the successful effort to recreate the bench in a central park in Polish Kraków, where in 1916 Hugo Steinhaus overheard Stefan Banach talking to Otto Nikodym about the rather new Lebesgue integral. This event, which had important effects for Banach's career, Steinhaus later called his most important mathematical discovery. The paper gives vivid but short accounts of the careers of Banach, Nikodym, and Witold Wilkosz who usually had been involved in the mathematical discussions, too. In the second part of their paper, the authors describe the difficult effort to convince authorities and sponsors to build the metal sculpture with Banach and Nikodym sitting on the bench. The artist was the outstanding Polish sculptor Stefan Dousa, and unveiling took place in October 2016.