Our life is like a German Confederacy made up

of petty states with its boundary forever

fluctuating, so that even a German cannot tell
you how it is bounded at any moment
-Henry David Thoraeu-

Mathematicians won the war. Mathematicians broke the

Japanese codes... and built the A-bomb. Mathematicians...
like you. The stated goal of the Soviets is global
Communism. In medicine or economics, in technology or
space, battle lines are being drawn. To triumph, we need
results. Publishable, applicable results. Now who among
you will be the next Morse? The next Einstein? Who
among you will be the vanguard of democracy, freedom,
and discovery? Today, we bequeath America's future into
your able hands. Welcome to Princeton, gentlemen.
-HelingerFrom movie A Beautiful Mind

TRANSITION TO THE 20TH

CENTURY:
CANTOR AND KRONECKER

Significant Events During the Period

1. Defeat of Prussia by Napoleon in Jena in 1806.
2. Signing of the Treaty of Tilsit (1807).
3. Stripping Prussia of all its territories west of the
Elbe.
4. Prussia lost all its Universities except for the
three along the Baltic coast; the lost of those at
Gttingen and Halle was the most severe blow.

The throne and people of Prussia turned to

education, the only area in which the French left
them free to act as the means to the moral and
physical regeneration of their country.
We have indeed lost territory and it is true that the
state has declined in outward splendor and
power, and for that very reason it is my earnest
desire that the greatest attention be paid to the
education of peopleThe state must regain in
intellectual force what it lost in physical force.
-King Frederick William III5.

At the time of Prussias deepest national despair,

a new university was founded in Berlin (1810).
University of Berlin
An embodiment of a new conception of higher
education.
Intended primarily to develop knowledge.
Intended secondarily to train the professional
classes.

Features of the University and other Founded Universities

1.

2.

3.

4.

The main emphasis for both students and teachers

was on original research.
The lecture hall took the place of classroom
recitation.
Seminar, in which a small group of advanced
students investigated a problem under the direction
of a professor, became prominent feature of every
department.
The university was given full liberty to manage its
own affairs regarding to studies and administration.

5.

The sober search for the truth , without

reference to where the truth led, was the
watchword of the University of Berlin.
Other universities were founded on the new
model of Berlin; Breslau(1811),Bonn(1818),
and Munich (1826). The unquestionable
superiority of their libraries, laboratories, and
scholars explained the scientific renown that
Germany enjoyed abroad.

6.

7.

8.

Pains were taken to eliminate nepotism,

favoritism, and seniorism in appointments, as a
result, a new kind of professorate emerged.
Premium was place on teachers who could also
published, and whose publications were
sufficiently significant to draw attention to the
university.
A person with doctorate and promise of scholarly
merit could apply to a university for a license to
give accredited lectures as privatdozent.