Completed Projects GNT (Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und Technik/History of Science and Technology)

LMUexcellent: The Transfer of Knowledge between Orient and Occident (projecet finished in September 2010)

The project „The Transfer of Knowledge between Orient and Occident“ was completed on September 30, 2010. The talks given at the conference „Between Orient and Occident: Transformation of Knowledge" (November 6-7, 2010, Deutsches Museum, Munich) were published as proceedings in an edition of the journal Annales of Science in 2011.

Head of Project: Dr. Benno van Dalen
Visiting professors: Prof. Dr. Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute, London), Prof. Dr. Sonja Brentjes (Universidad de Sevilla) and Dr. David Juste (now Universität Erlangen).

Europe and its peripheries: The transfer of knowledge between Orient and Occident and the encounter of arab, latin and jewish concepts of knowledge in Spain (tenth to thirteenth century), in Sicily (twelth to thirteenth century) and in the Ottoman Empire (sixteenth to eighteenth century) as well as their impact on the European development of science until the time of the Enlightenment.

The History of the Analysis of Ordinal Numbers and its implication for the Philosophy of Mathematics

Funded by the DFG
Applicant: Prof. Dr. Menso Folkerts, Prof. Dr. Godehard Link
Scientific Assistant: Dipl.-Math. Christian Tapp
Duration: October 1, 2001 – September 30, 2004

The method of the analysis of ordinal numbers traces back to the Hilbert program and the subsequent results of Gerhard Gentzen regarding consistency of pure number theory. In this project the historical development of this method was investigated with special attention payed to the shift in basic theoretical questions and their implications for the philosophy of mathematics. 

Berlin Observatory 1787-1823

Funded by the DFG
Applicants: Prof. Dr. Menso Folkerts, Prof. Dr. Peter Brosche
Scientific Assistant: Dr. Wolfgang Kokott
Duration: November 1, 1999 – October 31, 2002
Recently, the documents concerning the term of Johann Elert Bode as director of the Berlin Observatory (1747-1826) have become available. They represent a homogenous corpus of source materials that came into being during a very eventful time in the history of astronomy. The projects aims at making accessible these documents and at contextualising them with regards to Bode´s manifold activities and the astronomical historical context of this epoch.

The Script of the Astrolab of al-Farghani (Edition of the Arab Text alongside an English translation and commentary)

Funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation
Applicants: Prof. Dr. Karin Figala, Prof. Dr. Paul Kunitzsch
Scientific Assistant: Dr. Richard Lorch
Duration: January 1, 2000 – December 31, 2001

Astronomers of the Struve Family

Funded by the Free State of Bavaria
Applicant: Prof. Dr. Felix Schmeidler
Scientific Assistant: Dr. Alexandre Lekhtman
Duration: July 7, 1999 – June 30, 2001
The Struve family has produced six great astronomers. This project investigates their contributions to the development of astronomy in the nineteenth and twentieth century. There will be a cooperation with the observatory Pulkovo, where some of the Struve-Astronomers worked.

Wilhelm Müller (1880-1968) – Biography of a „German Physicist“

Funded by the Thyssen Krupp Foundation
Applicant: Prof. Dr. Menso Folkerts
Scientific Assistant: Dr. Freddy Litten
Duration: March 1, 1999 – October 31, 2000
Wilhelm Müllers claim to fame/infamy is based on him taking over the Munich chair for theoretical physics from Arnold Sommerfels in 1939. This project wants to inspect this process and its results more closely and put it into context of Müllers biography.

Sommerfled-Edition

Funded by the DFG
Applicant: Prof. Dr. Jürgen Teichmann, Prof. Dr. Harald Fritzsch, Prof. Dr. Arnulf Schlüter
Scientific Assistants: Dr. Michael Eckert and Dipl.-Phys. Karl Märker
Duration: April 1, 1995 – March 31, 2000
This project will digitalize the scientific correspondence of the theoretical physicist Arnold Sommerfels (1868-1951) and compile a selective anthology in two volumes.

Walter Gerlach (1889-1979) – Scientific Biography and Edition of his Correspondence

Funded by the DFG
Applicant: Prof. Dr. Menso Folkerts
Scientific Assistant: Dr. Hans-Reinhard Bachmann
Duration: August 1, 1992 – July 31, 1994, August 1, 1995 – July 31, 1997

Thabit ibn Qurra. About the Sector Figure

Funded by the DFG
Applicant: Prof. Dr. Paul Kunitzsch, Institut für Semitistik, LMU München
Scientific Assistant: Dr. Richard Lorch
Duration: December 1, 1994 – November 30, 1996

Preparation of the Fourth Edition of the Work of Tropfke, History of Elementary Mathematics, Vol. 2a (Geometry Level)

Funded by the Bayerischen Staatsministerium für Unterricht und Kultus, Wissenschaft und Kunst by making available the editor
Applicant: Prof. Dr. Rudolf Fritsch
Advisors: Prof. Dr. Menso Folkerts, Prof. Dr. Rudolf Fritsch
Duration: September 1, 1994 – August 8, 1996

The Fate of Natural Scientists at the University of Munich 1945-1949

Funded by the DFG
Applicant: Prof. Dr. Menso Folkerts
Scientific Assistant: Dr. Freddy Litten
Duration: March 1, 1992 – August 31, 1995

Indexing and Edition of letters from and to Veit Bild with mathematical, astronomical and astrological contents

Funded by the DFG
Applicants: Prof. Dr. Jürgen Brüning (Universität Augsburg), Prof. Dr. Menso Folkerts
Scientific Assistant: Dr. Christoph Schöner
Duration: March 1, 1993 – August 30, 1994

Transfer and Transformation of German Theoretical Physics in the United States and Great Britain, 1920-1945

Funded by the DFG
Applicant: PD Dr. Jürgen Teichmann
Scientific Assistant: Dr. Michael Eckert, Dr. Paul Hoch, Dr. Stefan Wolff
Duration: October 1, 1988 – September 30, 1989, July 1, 1990 – December 31, 1993

Theodosius´ Sphaerica

Funded by the DFG
Applicant: Prof. Dr. Menso Folkerts
Scientific Assistant: Dr. Richard Lorch
Duration: March 1, 1988 – August 31, 1990

Creation of a Catalogue of Medieval Mathematical Manuscripts

Funded by the DFG
Applicants: Prof. Dr. Menso Folkerts; stellv. Leiter PD Dr. Andreas Kühne
Scientific and Student Assistants: Dr. Friederike Boockmann, Gerhard Brey, Steve Harris, Alfonsa Riggi-Haberstock, Christoph Schöner, Regine Striewski-Barff, Iwona Kul, Andrea Scheiding
Duration: November 1, 1985 – December 12, 1989

The History of Diluted Gas Physics

Funded by the DFG
Applicant: Prof. Dr. Ivo Schneider
Scientific Assistant: Dr. Stefan Wolff
Duration: January 1, 1987 – August 31, 1989