Erich Kamke

Erich Kamke (1890 to 1961) was a German mathematician who specialized in the theory of differential equations, and whose book on set theory became a standard introduction to that field. Born in Marienburg, West Prussia, he studied mathematics and physics at Giessen and Göttingen and earned his doctorate in 1919 under Edmund Landau with a thesis on generalizations of the Waring-Hilbert theorem. After a habilitation at Münster in 1922 he became a professor at Tübingen in 1926. Because of his marriage to the daughter of a Jewish businessman and his opposition to National Socialism, he was denounced and forced to retire in 1937. After the war he returned to Tübingen, helped organize the first scientific congress held in Germany after the war, re-established the German Mathematical Society in 1948 and served as vice-president of the International Mathematical Union until 1954.