Forgotten Mathematician Henry Lowig (1904-1995)
2012, 279 pages, .
INTRODUCTION
This monograph was written in 2010 and 2011
It is dedicated to the life and work of
Henry Lowig (1904–1995), long forgotten mathematician from the Czech lands,
whose complicated life story and scientific career paralleled the evolution of our
nation during the 20th century.
The initial inspiration for this work was the discovery of personal and
professional correspondence between Henry Lowig and Vladimír Kořínek
(1899–1981), held in Prague at the Archive of the Academy of Sciences of the
Czech Republic. The second impulse was making contact with Ingrid Jackson
(née Lowig – Henry Lowig’s daughter) and Libuše Lowig (Henry Lowig’s
wife), who live in Sydney, Australia and who with extraordinary interest and
willingness enabled the study of family archives.
Henry Lowig (respectively also Heinrich Löwig and Jindřich L¨owig) was born
in Prague of a German Catholic family with a Jewish-born father, attended the
German grammar school in Liberec and studied at the Faculty of Science of
the German University in Prague. In the 1930s he was worked as assistant
teacher and interim teacher at various German secondary schools in Bohemia
and Moravia. He was also a private docent of mathematics at the German
University in Prague, where he taught a foundation mathematics course and
gave optional lectures in “modern mathematics”. Henry’s promising scientific
and teaching career was interrupted by World War II and the gruesome Nazi
race laws. Even after the war, he was still not able to obtain a suitable teaching
position at a secondary or tertiary institution, as under the laws of the new
Czechoslovak Republic he was considered a German, and hence an “unreliable”
citizen. That is why in 1948 he accepted a lecturing position at the University
of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia, leaving Czechoslovakia for good. He decided
to live abroad and, after the February communist coup, never returned to
his native country. In 1957 he moved to Edmonton, Canada, where he was
appointed tenured professor of mathematics and taught until his retirement in
1972, thereafter staying as emeritus professor.
We note that Henry Lowig was ashamed of his German origins and all that
the Germans had done duringWorldWar II, so he officially changed his name to
avoid being identified as German and he rarely ever spoke in German again. His
family communicated only in Czech and upheld Czech customs and traditions.
He did not forget Bohemia, the Czech nation and culture, and throughout
his life corresponded with Czech friends and colleagues; his letters written in
perfect Czech show his deep interest in the development of our mathematics.
This monograph seeks to recall Lowig’s life story, to evoke his personal,
moral and ethical views which rightfully deserve our attention, respect and
admiration, and to evaluate his mathematical work.
⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
The first part of this monograph describes in detail Henry Lowig’s life story,
the lives of his father, mother, sister and his own family, and his educational
and scientific work of which almost nothing is known in our mathematics
community. We evaluate his professional work and place it in the context
of the development of mathematics in Europe and the world. This section
was written on the basis of archival research and study of material in books,
journals, professional monographs, textbooks, published works and newspaper
articles.
The second section of the monograph contains factual appendices. These
consist of a list of Lowig’s publications supplemented by reviews of those works,
a list of reviews written by Lowig and Lowig’s revealing personal memoir of
the difficult time he spent in German labour camps.
The third section contains reproductions of contemporaneous documents
and photographs. The work concludes with an English synopsis and an index.
⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
I extend my thanks to all my colleagues who over the last three years
discussed with me the life and work of Henry Lowig. These conversations
provided valuable suggestions and ideas. It is my agreeable duty to express
thanks above all to Professor Vlastimil Dlab, Associate Professor Jindřich
Bečvář and Dr. Antonín Slavík, who analysed and evaluated Lowig’s work and
achievements in algebra (lattice theory, theory of algebra), linear algebra and
functional analysis (dimension theory) and mathematical analysis (difference
and differential equations).
For the challenging work of translating the first chapter devoted to Professor
Lowig’s life story, the translation of his labour camp memoirs, help with
translating the factual appendices, proof-reading and editing all chapters and
careful perusal of the whole manuscript, I thank Ingrid Jackson (née Lowig) of
Sydney, Australia, without whose help and support the English edition of the
book would not have been possible.
Thanks also to Professor Ivan Netuka and Dr. Zdeněk Pousta for careful
review of my manuscript and suggestions which contributed to its completion
and to Dr. Jan Škoda from the Prague City Archive for assistance with sourcing
archival and book materials.
I thank all those working in archives and libraries who helped me with
archival and literature research. The work required particular materials from
the following institutions: Archive of the Czech Technical University in Prague,
Archive of the Charles University, Archive of the Academy of Sciences of the
Czech Republic in Prague, National Archives of the Czech Republic in Prague,
Prague City Archives, Archive of Security Forces (Prague), State District
Archives Liberec, State District Archives Pardubice, Military History Archive
in Prague, National Library of the Czech Republic, Library of the Faculty
of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Library of the Mathematics
Department, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Library of the
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague, J. A. Komenský Library
in Prague.
Finally I thank the University of Tasmania, Australia and the University of
Alberta, Canada for endorsing this book about Professor Lowig who dedicated
many years to teaching and working at those universities.
Martina Bečvářová
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Endorsement by the University of Tasmania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Endorsement by the University of Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Table of contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
I. Henry Lowig’s life story and work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
M. Bečvářová: Family tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
M. Bečvářová: Historical timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
M. Bečvářová: Life story of Heinrich L¨owig – Jindřich L¨owig
– Henry Lowig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
A. Slavík: Lowig’s works on functional equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
J. Bečvář: Lowig’s works in functional analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
J. Bečvář, V. Dlab: Lowig’s works on algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123
II. Factual appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
List of Henry Lowig’s publications (M. Bečvářová) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
List of reviews by Henry Lowig (M. Bečvářová) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
My experiences from 14th October 1944 to 5th May 1945 (H. Lowig) . . . . . 157
III. Photograph and document appendix (M. Bečvářová) . . . . . . . . . . 165
List of photographs and documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
IV. Addendum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .272
Forgotten Mathematician Henry Lowig (1904-1995)
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