Hirsch

Kurt August Hirsch

Born: 12 Jan 1906 in Berlin, Germany
Died: 4 Nov 1986 in London, England

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Kurt Hirsch studied at the University of Berlin where he was taught by Bieberbach, von Mises, Schmidt and Schur. Although most influenced by Schur his doctoral dissertation was on the philosophy of mathematics. Completed and examined in 1930 (Bieberbach was an examiner), it was not until 1933 that Hirsch could afford to get it printed so he did not receive the degree until 1933.

Hirsch became a journalist, writing a scientific column. His wife, who he married in 1928, was Jewish and he adopted the faith for her sake. He had little choice but to leave for England (where he had distant relatives).

Despite having a doctorate, he completed a second one at Cambridge on polycyclic groups under Hall's supervision. Appointments to Leicester and Durham followed (he won county chess championships in both places). Then in 1951 he was appointed to London where he remained building up a strong algebra school.

All Hirsch's publications were in group theory, in addition to the work on polycyclic groups he published on locally nilpotent groups and automorphism groups of torsion free abelian groups.

References:

  1. K W Gruenberg, Kurt August Hirsch : obituary, Bull. London Math. Soc. 20 (1988), 350-358. 
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