Arthur Moritz Schoenflies

Arthur Moritz Schoenflies (German: [ˈʃøːnfliːs]; 17 April 1853 – 27 May 1928), sometimes written as Schönflies, was a German mathematician, known for his contributions to the application of group theory to crystallography, and for work in topology.

Schoenflies was born in Landsberg an der Warthe (modern Gorzów, Poland). He studied under Kummer and Weierstrass, and was influenced by Felix Klein.

The Schoenflies problem is to prove that an (n − 1)-sphere in Euclidean n-space bounds a topological ball, however embedded. This question is much more subtle than initially appears.

He studied at the University of Berlin from 1870–1875. He obtained a doctorate in 1877, and in 1878 he was a teacher at a school in Berlin. In 1880, he went to Colmar to teach.

Schoenflies was a frequent contributor to Klein's encyclopedia: In 1898 he wrote on set theory, in 1902 on kinematics, and on projective geometry in 1910.

He was a great-uncle of Walter Benjamin.

Selected works