Hermann Künneth

Hermann Lorenz Künneth (1892 to 1975) was a German mathematician and algebraic topologist, remembered above all for the theorem in algebraic topology that now carries his name, a result tied to the Betti numbers of product manifolds, the subject of his doctoral thesis. He was born in Neustadt an der Haardt and died in Erlangen. He served in the First World War and was captured by British forces. His 1922 doctoral thesis at the University of Erlangen, on the Betti numbers of a product manifold, was supervised by Heinrich Tietze and contains the result for which he is known. From 1923 he taught at secondary schools in Kronach and Erlangen, and after retiring from school teaching he became a professor at the University of Erlangen. In 1964 he received the Bundesverdienstkreuz, the Federal Cross of Merit of Germany.