Biography of Ernst Witt (1911-1991) (Q2704203)

This biography was planned for the Collected Papers of Ernst Witt [Collected Papers -- Gesammelte Abhandlungen. Ed. by Ina Kersten. With an essay by Günter Harder on Witt vectors. Berlin: Springer (1998; Zbl 0917.01054)] but could not appear there for copyright reasons. It is divided into five parts: 1. Childhood and youth, 2. University studies, 3. The time between 1933 and 1945, 4. Dismissal and rehabilitation, 5. After 1947. Parts 3. and 4. describe the political involvement of E. Witt during the Nazi regime. Apart from formally joining the Nazi party (`he probably was governed by a sort of romantic confusion' in the opinion of R. Courant) apparently Witt was not involved into any party activity. The mathematical career of E. Witt is described but the technical details of his mathematical achievements are omitted as they have been discussed in the Collected Papers. The complete list of Witt's papers as published in the Collected Papers is included.NEWLINENEWLINEFor the entire collection see [Zbl 0956.00036].