Carl Hindenburg

Who was Carl Hindenburg?

Carl Friedrich Hindenburg was a German mathematician born in Dresden. His work centered mostly on combinatorics and probability.

Hindenburg did not attend school but was educated at home by a private tutor as arranged by his merchant father. He went to the University of Leipzig in 1757 and took courses in medicine, philosophy, Latin, Greek, physics, mathematics, and aesthetics. Hindenberg later published on philology in 1763 and 1769.

Hindenberg was mentored by Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, a popular lecturer in Leipzig introduced Hindenberg to a student named Schönborn. Schönborn's interest in mathematics influenced Hindenburg to go into the field as well. He obtained a Master's degree from the University of Leipzig in 1771 and was made Privatdozent in the same year. Hindenberg's first published mathematical publication, Beschreibung einer ganz neuen art, nach einem bekannten Gesetze fortgehende Zahlen durch Abzahlen oder Abmessen bequem und sicher zu finden, originated as a project to extend then-existing prime tables up to 5 million.