Paul Stäckel


Paul Gustav Samuel Stäckel was a German mathematician, active in the areas of differential geometry, number theory, and non-Euclidean geometry. In the area of prime number theory, he used the term twin prime for the first time.
After passing his Abitur in 1880 he studied mathematics and physics at the University of Berlin, but also listened to lectures on philosophy, psychology, education, and history. A year later he qualified for teaching in higher education and then taught at Gymnasien in Berlin. In 1885 he wrote his doctoral dissertation under Leopold Kronecker and Karl Weierstraß. In 1891 he completed his Habilitation at the University of Halle. Later he worked as a professor at the University of Königsberg, the University of Kiel, University of Hannover, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and the University of Heidelberg.
Stäckel worked on both mathematics and the history of mathematics. He edited the letters exchanged between Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wolfgang Bolyai, made contributions to editions of the collected works of Euler and Gauss, and edited the Geometrischen Untersuchungen by Wolfgang and Johann Bolyai. Additionally he translated works of Jacob Bernoulli, Johann Bernoulli, Augustin Louis Cauchy, Leonhard Euler, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Adrien-Marie Legendre, Carl Gustav Jacobi from French and Latin into German for the series :de:Ostwalds Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften|Ostwalds Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften.
In 1904 he was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Heidelberg. In 1905 he was the president of the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung. His doctoral students include Paul Riebesell.

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