Ernst Kötter

Ernst Kötter (1859-1922) was a German mathematician.

Education Kötter graduated in 1884 from the University of Berlin under the supervision of Karl Weierstrass and Leopold Kronecker.

Career Kötter's treatise "Fundamentals of a purely geometrical theory of algebraic plane curves" gained the 1886 prize of the Berlin Royal Academy.

In 1901, he published his report on "The development of synthetic geometry from Monge to Staudt (1847)"; it had been sent to the press as early as 1897, but completion was deferred by Kötter's appointment to Aachen University and a subsequent persisting illness. He constructed a mobile wood model to illustrate the theorems of Dandelin spheres.

In a discussion with Schoenflies and Kötter, Hilbert reportedly uttered his famous quotation according to which points, lines, and planes in geometry could be named as well "tables, chairs, and beer mugs".

Publications