Fritz Noether

Who was Fritz Noether?

Fritz Alexander Ernst Noether was a German-born mathematician.

Fritz Noether's father Max Noether was a mathematician and professor in Erlangen. The notable mathematician Emmy Noether was his elder sister; the mathematician Gottfried Noether was his son.

Fritz Noether was also an able mathematician. Not allowed to work in Germany for being a Jew, he moved to the Soviet Union, where he was appointed to a professorship at the University of Tomsk. In November 1937, during the Great Purge, he was arrested at his home in Tomsk by the NKVD and sentenced to a 25-year imprisonment for being a "German spy". While in prison, he was accused of "anti-Soviet propaganda", sentenced to death, and shot.

In 1988 the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union decided that he had not been guilty of any crime.