Hans Freudenthal

Hans Freudenthal (September 17, 1905 – October 13, 1990) was a Dutch mathematician. He made substantial contributions to algebraic topology and also took an interest in literature, philosophy, history and mathematics education.

Freudenthal was born in Luckenwalde in Germany into a Jewish family and did his thesis work with Heinz Hopf at the University of Berlin, and defended a thesis on the ends of topological groups in 1930. He was officially awarded a degree in October 1931. He then went to Amsterdam to serve as assistant to Brouwer.In 1937 he proved the Freudenthal suspension theorem.

In 1941 Freudenthal was suspended from duties at the University of Amsterdam by the Nazis. His wife, however, was not Jewish, so he was not sent to a concentration camp in eastern Europe but he was deported to a labor camp in the village of Havelte in the Netherlands. At the end of 1944 he was able to escape and join his family in occupied Amsterdam.

Later in his life, Freudenthal focused on elementary mathematics education.

In 2006 the Freudenthal institute for science and mathematics education was founded at Utrecht University .

ee also

* Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis
* Tatyana Alexeyevna Afanasyeva
* Lincos (language): Freudenthal designed a constructed language, to make possible communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence
* Freudenthal magic square
* Impossible puzzle

External links

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* [http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/freu002schr01_01/index.htm Autobiography by Hans Freudenthal, Hans, schrijf dat op]
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