Max Dehn
Crop of Max Dehn by Trude Guermonprez (Elsesser). Courtesy of Western Regional Archives.
Max Wilhelm Dehn and Vera Baker Williams on 'lunch run' on road between Studies Building (background) and Dining Hall, Lake Eden Campus. Courtesy of Western Regional Archives.
FOCUS
Physical Sciences/ Math
ROLE
Faculty
ATTENDANCE
1945 - 1952
BIRTH
1878-11-13
Hamburg, Germany
DEATH
1952-06-27
Black Mountain, NC
Dehn taught at BMC from 1945 until shortly before his passing in 1952.
Max Dehn was a German mathematician and educator whose study of topology in 1910 led to his theorem on topological manifolds, known as Dehn’s lemma. Dehn was educated in Germany and received his doctorate from the University of Göttingen in 1900. He was influenced by the German mathematician David Hilbert’s work on axiomatization of geometry as well as by the writings of the French mathematician, Henri Poincaré. Dehn served as professor of mathematics at Frankfurt University from 1921 until 1935, when he was forced to leave the university by the Nazis. In 1940 Dehn immigrated to the United States to continue his teaching and topological research.
Biography shared on Brittanica
Relationships
Wife: Toni Dehn
Niece: Franziska Mayer
