Wilhelm Fiedler: His Life, his Opus and his Activities. The Fights of a Geometer

该项目的目的是准备出版一本题为《威廉·费德勒：他的生平、作品和活动》的书。几何学家的斗争”。本书将由两卷组成，第一卷致力于详细研究费德勒的生活，他的载体，他的工作，放在他的时代（1832年至1912年）和他所从事的机构（Höhere Gewerbeschule Chemnitz（1851年至1864年），布拉格理工学院（1864年至1867年）和z<e:1>里奇（1867年至1907年））的背景下。这将是对费德勒的第一次全面研究，他曾在z<e:1>里奇担任描述几何和位置几何的教授。费德勒的研究领域是几何，特别是描述几何和射影几何：除了自己的研究论文（40多篇），他还出版了三本书。费德勒出版了乔治·萨尔蒙（George Salmon）著作的德文版本，从而变得极具影响力。这些德文版本被广泛使用，经常被重新编辑，并被一代又一代的数学家用来学习“新几何”——当时通常被称为“解析几何”——与“新代数”和不变量理论密切相关。“萨尔门-费德勒”这个名字在当时是所有数学工作者都知道的，它是一个非常突出的商标。费德勒自己关于描述几何的书（1871年，四版，翻译成意大利语）有一定的影响（也在国际层面上）；它的中心思想是描述几何和投影几何的综合，综合几何和解析几何的综合——这是费德勒的标志。费德勒在定义射影几何本质的过程中发挥了作用，在那个时期继续进行。费德勒留下了大量的信件和大量有趣的材料；他是一个网络的积极成员，主要以理工学院为基础，致力于捍卫几何，防止其重要性因19世纪最后三分之一的突出趋势（“算术”）而下降。该网络还为保存和设置几何教授职位而斗争。费德勒的例子从一个新的角度提供了关于数学发展这一重要时期的额外信息；它以一种新的视角完善了我们的知识——一个在综合技术系统的机构中受过完全训练的几何学教授，并被聘为描述几何学家。描述几何是理工数学的标志，费德勒深深植根于这一传统，而这一传统在史学中或多或少被忽视了。有趣的描述几何甚至被输出到一些大学，而大多数数学是由理工学院从大学引进的。在费德勒的论文中，还有许多其他有趣的文件，如课程草稿、学生的讲课笔记、学生作为家庭作业写的论文、图画等等。它们为费德勒的教学提供了一幅真实的画面，特别是在理工学院的教学。

The aim of the project is to prepare the publication of a book entitled "Wilhelm Fiedler: His Life, his Opus, his Activities. The Fights of a Geometer". This book will be composed of two volumes, the first being dedicated to a detailed study of Fiedler’s life, his carrier, his work, placed in the context of his time (1832 – 1912) and of the institutions where he was engaged (Höhere Gewerbeschule Chemnitz (1851 – 1864), Polytechnics at Prague (1864 – 1867) and Zürich (1867 – 1907)). This will be the first comprehensive study on Fiedler who served at Zürich as professor of descriptive geometry and geometry of position. Fiedler’s field of research was geometry, in particular descriptive and projective geometry: besides own research papers (more then 40) he published three books. Fiedler became highly influential by publishing the German editions of books written by George Salmon. These German editions were widespread, often re-edited and used by generations of mathematicians in order to learn „new geometry“ – often called „analytic geometry“ at that time - closely linked to „new algebra“ and invariant theory. The name „Salmon-Fiedler“ was known to everybody working in mathematics at that time, it was a highly prominent trademark. Fiedler’s own book on descriptive geometry (1871; four editions, translated into Italian) had a certain influence (also on the international level); its central idea was a synthesis of descriptive and projective, of synthetic and analytic geometry - getting a brandmark of Fiedler's. Fiedler played a role in the process of defining the nature of projective geometry, ongoing at that period. Fiedler left a huge correspondence and a great number of interesting materials; he was an active member of a network, mainly based at Polytechnics, engaged in defending geometry against the decline of its importance due to prominent tendancies („Arithmetisierung“) in the last third of the 19the century. The network also fought for the preservation and the installation of professorships for geometry. Fiedlers case provides additional information from a new viewpoint on this important period of the development of mathematics; it completes our knowledge by a new perspective – that of a professor of geometry completely trained in institutions of the polytechnical system and employed as a descriptive geometer. Descriptive geometry was the brandmark of polytechnical mathematics and Fiedler was deeply rooted in this tradition, a tradition more or less neglected in the historiography. Interesting enough descriptive geometry was even exported to some universities whereas most mathematics was imported by the Polytechnics from universities. In Fiedler's papers there are many other interesting documents like drafts for courses, lectures notes taken by his students, papers written by the students as homework, drawings, and so on. They provide an authentic picture of Fiedler's teaching in particular and of the teaching in general at Polytechnics.