Herbert Seifert

Who was Herbert Seifert?

Herbert Karl Johannes Seifert was a German mathematician known for his work in topology.

He was born in Bernstadt auf dem Eigen, but soon moved to Bautzen, where he attended primary school at the Knabenbürgerschule, and secondary school at the Oberrealschule.

In 1926 Seifert entered the Dresden University of Technology. The next year he attended a course on topology given by William Threlfall. This would be the beginning both of his lifelong work in the subject and his friendship with Threlfall. In the year 1928-29 he visited the University of Göttingen, where topologists such as Pavel Sergeevich Alexandrov and Heinz Hopf were working.

In 1930 he received his doctorate. He then moved to the University of Leipzig, where he received his second doctorate in 1932. It was here that Seifert submitted his dissertation, Topologie 3-dimensionaler gefaserter Räume, on 1 February 1932, and he was awarded with this doctorate of philosophy after his oral examination on March 3. The manifolds he studied in his thesis were afterwards named Seifert fiber spaces.

Seifert continued to collaborate with Threlfall, and in 1934 they published their Lehrbuch der Topologie. In 1938 they published Variationsrechnung im Grossen.