Dietrich Mahnke

Dietrich Mahnke (October 17, 1884 – July 25, 1939) was a German philosopher and historian of mathematics.

From 1911 until 1927 Mahnke studied at Stade and Greifswald. In 1925 he graduated from the University of Freiburg with a thesis on Leibniz, which was published by Edmund Husserl in his series Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung as Leibnizens Synthese von Universalmathematik und Individualmetaphysik.

In 1926 he habilitated at Greifswald with a thesis entitled Neue Einblicke in die Entdeckungsgeschichte der höheren Analysis. In 1927 he became a professor of philosophy at Marburg.

His work in the history of mathematics was mostly on Leibniz, and his development of the infinitesimal calculus. He also worked on editing some of Leibniz's mathematical correspondence.

His last book, Unendliche Sphäre und Allmittelpunkt, Beiträge zur Genealogie der mathematischen Mystik was a study of the use of mathematical symbolism, especially the notion of "infinite spheres", in religious mysticism.

References

• Joseph W. Dauben, Christoph J. Scriba (ed.): Writing the History of Mathematics – Its Historical Development. Birkhäuser, Basel 2002, ISBN 978-3-7643-6167-9
• Gerhard Biller: Mahnke, Dietrich. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 15. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, p. 691 f. (German)

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Name	Mahnke, Dietrich
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Date of birth	October 17, 1884
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Date of death	July 25, 1939
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