Johann Carl Friedrich Gauß (1777 - 1855)

Born 30 Apr 1777 in Braunschweig, Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, Heiliges Römisches Reich

Husband of Johanna Elisabetha Rosina (Osthoff) Gauß — married 9 Oct 1805 in Braunschweig, Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, Heiliges Römisches Reich

Husband of Friederica Wilhelmine (Waldeck) Gauß — married 4 Aug 1810 in Göttingen, Leine-Departement, Königreich Westphalen

Descendants

Died 23 Feb 1855 at age 77 in Göttingen, Königreich Hannover, Deutscher Bund

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Biography

Carl Friedrich Gauß is Notable.

Carl Friedrich Gauß (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist who contributed significantly to many fields of mathematics and science, including number theory, algebra, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, mechanics, electrostatics, astronomy, matrix theory, and optics.

Johann Carl Friedrich was born on 30 April 1777 in Brunswick (Braunschweig), in the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (now part of Lower Saxony, Germany).^[1] His father had a variety of jobs, including gardener, butcher, bricklayer, clerk's assistant, and treasurer of a small insurance company.^[2][3] Carl Friedrich's mother was illiterate and never recorded the date of his birth, remembering only that he had been born on a Wednesday, eight days before the Feast of the Ascension, which itself occurs 39 days after Easter.

Carl Friedrich married Johanna Elisabeth Rosina Osthoff on 9 October 1805 in Brunswick. They had three children:^[3]

• Joseph (21 Aug 1806 - 4 Jul 1873),
• Wilhelmine "Minna" (29 Feb 1808 - 12 Aug 1840),
• Louis (10 Sep 1809 - 1 Mar 1810).

Gauß's personal life was overshadowed by the early death of his first wife, Johanna, in 1809, soon followed by the death of their son Louis. Gauss plunged into a depression, from which he never fully recovered. He married again, on 4 August 1810 in Göttingen, to Johanna's best friend, Friederica Wilhelmine Waldeck, commonly known as Minna. They had three children:^[3]

• Eugen (29 Jul 1811 - 4 Jul 1896),
• Wilhelm (23 Oct 1813 - 23 Aug 1879),
• Therese (9 Jun 1816 - 11 Feb 1864), married Constantin Staufenau after her father's death.

Carl Friedrich's mother lived in his house from 1817 until her death in 1839. When his second wife, Minna, died in 1831 after a long illness, his youngest daughter, Therese, took over the household and cared for Gauß for the rest of his life.^[3]

Gauß died in Göttingen, in the Kingdom of Hanover (now part of Lower Saxony, Germany) on 23 February 1855 and is interred in the Albanifriedhof cemetery there.^[4][5]

Sources

1. ↑ "Deutschland, Sachsen, Kirchenbuchindexe, 1500-1900," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6Z2V-C47C : 1 July 2021), Carl Friedrich Gauß, ; citing Direktionsbezirk Dresden, Sachsen, Deutschland, Genealogische Forschungsstelle (Family History Center), Frankfurt.
2. ↑ Sartorius von Waltershausen, Wolfgang. Gauss zum Gedächtniss. 1856, p. 9
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} German Wikipedia article on Carl Friedrich Gauß
4. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #5205
5. ↑ "BillionGraves Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKDG-TN2D : 15 September 2015), Carl Friedrich Gauß, died 23 Feb 1855; citing BillionGraves (http://www.billiongraves.com : 2012), Burial at Albanifriedhof, Göttingen, Göttingen, Niedersachsen, Germany.

See also:

• Wikidata: Item Q6722, en:Wikipedia
• Stuloff, Nikolai. Gauß, Carl Friedrich. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie 6 (1964), S. 101-107 (Online-Version); URL: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd104234644.html#ndbcontent
• The Britannica Guide to The 100 Most Influential Scientists (2007), pp. 147-150.