Hans Freudenthal

Hans Freudenthal (17 September 1905 – 13 October 1990) was a German-born Dutch mathematician. He made substantial contributions to algebraic topology and also took an interest in literature, philosophy, history and mathematics education.

Biography

Freudenthal was born in Luckenwalde, Brandenburg, on 17 September 1905, the son of a Jewish teacher. He was interested in both mathematics and literature as a child, and studied mathematics at the University of Berlin beginning in 1923. He met Brouwer in 1927, when Brouwer came to Berlin to give a lecture, and in the same year Freudenthal also visited the University of Paris. He completed his thesis work with Heinz Hopf at Berlin, defended a thesis on the ends of topological groups in 1930, and was officially awarded a degree in October 1931. After defending his thesis in 1930, he moved to Amsterdam to take up a position as assistant to Brouwer. In this pre-war period in Amsterdam, he was promoted to lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, and married his wife, Suus Lutter, a Dutch teacher.