Jakob Steiner (1796 - 1863)

Born 18 Mar 1796 in Utzenstorf, Bern, Switzerland

Ancestors

Died 1 Apr 1863 at age 67 in Bern, Switzerland

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Biography

Jakob Steiner is Notable.

Jakob was born in 1796. He passed away in 1863. He was one of the greatest contributors to projective geometry.

Jakob was the youngest of the eight children of Niklaus and Anna. Steiner had a poor education and did not learn to write until he was fourteen. As a child he had to help his parents on the farm and in their business: his skill in calculation was of great assistance.

Steiner became friends with Carl Jacobi, August Crelle and Niels Abel. Crelle founded a mathematical journal and Steiner contributed 62 articles to it.

The last ten years of Steiner's life were increasingly difficult through illness. Kidney problems caused him to spend most of the year in his native Switzerland, only going to Berlin in the winter to deliver his lectures. Eventually he became totally bedridden and was unable to carry out any teaching duties. His widowed mother lived with him and ministered to him since 1861. Steiner never married and, perhaps as a consequence, left a fortune on his death (there is rumor of an illegitimate daughter)^[1]. One third of this fortune went to the Berlin Academy to found the Steiner Prize. The rest of the money was divided between his relatives and the school in his native village of Utzenstorf. His last wish was that poor children in his home town could have a better educational opportunity than he himself had.

Sources

1. ↑ https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Publications/Eminger.pdf

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Steiner
• Wikidata: Item Q123514, en:Wikipedia
• https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Steiner/
• https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/mathematics-biographies/jakob-steiner
• "Schweiz, Katholische und Reformiert Kirchenbücher, 1418-1996", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6FZV-4KFG : Mon Oct 30 01:08:01 UTC 2023), Entry for Jakob Steiner and Niklaus Steiner, 1 Apr 1796.
• "Schweiz, Katholische und Reformiert Kirchenbücher, 1418-1996", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:68VY-CW9W : 4 April 2023), Jakob Steiner, 1863.