Felix Klein is arguably one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th century. He is best known for building the mathematical community at the University of Göttingen which became a model for research facilities in mathematics worldwide.

Christian Felix Klein was born on November 25, 1849 in Dusseldorf, the son of an official in the local finance department. Klein graduated from Gymnasium (the German equivalent of an academic high school) in Dusseldorf and began studying at the University of Bonn in 1865. At Bonn, he fell under the influence of Julius Plücker, one of the best-known geometers of the century. Plücker had moved the center of his interest to physics, and it had been in physics that Klein originally wanted to work, but Plücker returned to his original interest in geometry and took Klein with him. After Plücker's death in...