1864-1909

Russian-German Mathematician

Hermann Minkowski established the framework for modern functional analysis, expanded the understanding of quadratic forms, developed the geometry of numbers, and even contributed to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. His achievements are all the more remarkable in light of his relatively short career.

Born on June 22, 1864, in the town of Alexotas (then in the Russian Empire and now, under the name of Kaunas, a part of Lithuania), Minkowski was the son of a German-Jewish rag merchant. In 1872, when Minkowski was eight years old, the family returned to Germany, settling in the town of Königsberg. (Ironically, Königsberg, renamed Kaliningrad, is now part of Russia.)

Minkowski's brother Oskar (1858-1931) would later become famous as the physiologist who discovered the link between diabetes and the pancreas, and Minkowski himself showed a prodigious talent for mathematics as a student at the University of Königsberg...