Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center
Finding aid for the Hermann Weyl collection
FAC.WEYL
Table of Contents
Summary Information
- Repository
- Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center
- Creator
- Weyl, Hermann, 1885-1955
- Title
- Hermann Weyl collection
- ID
- FAC.WEYL
- Date
- 1938-1955
- Extent
- 1.0 linear feet
- Language
- English
- Language of Materials note
- Materials in English and German.
Preferred Citation note
The suggested citation for the material is "[item], Hermann Weyl collection, Box [box number], From the Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA."
Biographical note
Hermann Weyl (1885-1955) was born in Elmshorn, Germany. He received his doctorate in mathematics from Göttingen University in 1908, under the supervision of David Hilbert. He remained at Göttingen until 1913. Then he became Chair of Mathematics at the ETH Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich), where he was a colleague of Albert Einstein. During the 1928-1929 academic year he was the Jones Research Professor of Mathematical Physics at Princeton University.
Weyl left Zürich in 1930 to become Hilbert's successor at Göttingen. Repelled by the policies of the Nazi regime, however, he left Germany in 1933 to join the Faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study as its third member. Weyl retired in 1951, becoming an emeritus professor.
Weyl was extremely prolific and credited with many advances in mathematics and physics. His books included Das Kontinuum (The Continuum) and Raum-Zeit-Materie (Space-Time-Matter) (both 1918); Gruppentheorie und Quantenmechanik (Group Theory and Quantum Mechanics) (1928); Elementary Theory of Invariants (1935); The classical groups (1939); Algebraic Theory of Numbers (1940); Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science (1949); Symmetry (1952); and The Concept of a Riemannian Surface (1955).
Weyl had two children with his first wife, the writer and translator Helene Weyl (1893-1948). Their children were Joachim and Michael. Joachim had two daughters with his wife Sonja, Christina and Annemarie. In 1950, two years after Helene's death, Weyl married the Swiss sculptor Ellen Baer Lohnstein. After his retirement, Weyl moved to Switzerland, though he returned to the United States frequently.
Scope and Contents note
This collection consists of a small number of items relating to Hermann Weyl. Of the most significance is a series of family letters authored by Hermann and Helene Weyl to their son Joachim, daughter-in-law Sonja, and granddaughters. The letters to Joachim often include Hermann Weyl's thoughts and notes related to a joint publication. The collection also includes the telegram Weyl's second wife Ellen sent to his son announcing Weyl's death. Also of interest is a notebook on analytical geometry, correspondence regarding an effort to allow Weyl to retain his American citizenship after he had moved back to Switzerland, drafts of miscellaneous talks and articles, and an essay on his first wife, Helene Weyl.
The second box of the collection contains correspondence to and from Hermann and Hella Weyl for the period 1925-1955.
Administrative Information
Publication Information
Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center
Historical Studies-Social Science LibraryEinstein Drive
Princeton
NJ, 08540
609-734-8375
archives@ias.edu
Conditions Governing Access note
The collection is open without restriction.
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Materials were donated by Weyl's granddaughter, Annemarie Carr, in 2005 and 2009. Additional materials were donated by Robert Langlands. In 2017, correspondence was donated by Lawrence "Tom" Weyl, grandson of Hermann and Hella Weyl.
Related Materials
Related Archival Materials note
The bulk of Weyl's papers is located at ETH Zurich. See finding aid online at http://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-000310478.
Controlled Access Headings
Corporate Name(s)
- Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, N.J.).
Personal Name(s)
- Weyl, F. Joachim (Fritz Joachim), 1915-
- Weyl, Helene
Subject(s)
- Mathematical physics
- Mathematics
Collection Inventory
Files |
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| Box | ||||
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Annotations on letters by Sonja undated |
1 | |||
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Bibliography 1946 |
1 | |||
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Citation conferring honorary citizenship in the Stadt Elmshorn, Germany 1955 |
1 | |||
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Citizenship 1953-1955 |
1 | |||
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Clippings and biographical 1955 |
1 | |||
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Helene Weyl 1948 |
1 | |||
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Letters from Helene Weyl 1940-1943 |
1 | |||
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Letters from Helene Weyl 1944-1945 |
1 | |||
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Letters from Helene Weyl 1946-1948 and undated |
1 | |||
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Letters from Hermann Weyl 1938-1949 |
1 | |||
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Letters from Hermann Weyl 1950-1955 |
1 | |||
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Notebook - Analytische Geometrie undated |
1 | |||
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Personal (includes telegram announcing death) 1950s, with contextual information from 2005 |
1 | |||
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Postcard from Ellen Weyl 1955 |
1 | |||
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70th birthday wishes 1955 |
1 | |||
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Talks and articles undated |
1 | |||
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2017.0008 2017.0008 Hermann and Hella Weyl Correspondence 1925-1955 0.5 linear feet |
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Letters of Hella Weyl and Hermann Weyl to Jose Ortega y Gasset, 1926-1946 (typed transcript only) |
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| Box | ||||
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Travel journal of Hella and Hermann Weyl 1929 |
1 | |||
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Letters of Hella Weyl to Hermann Weyl, sent from Spain 1932 |
1 | |||
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Letter from Bruno Weyl 1947 |
1 | |||
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Letter, possibly from Erwin Schrodinger to Hermann Weyl 1954 |
1 | |||
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Letters to Hella and Hermann Weyl from Lulu Hofmann Bechtolsheim and Wilhelm Alfred von Bechtolsheim 1948-1955 |
1 | |||
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Letters to Hella and Hermann Weyl from Annemarie Thron 1948-1953 |
1 | |||
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Letters of Hella Weyl to family in Ribnitz, sent from Spain 1922 |
1 | |||
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Letters of Hella Weyl to family in Ribnitz 1925 |
1 | |||
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Letters of Hella Weyl to family in Ribnitz 1926 |
1 | |||
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Letters of Hella Weyl to family in Ribnitz and Zurich 1927-1928 |
1 | |||
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Letters of Hella Weyl to family in Ribnitz 1928-1929 |
1 | |||
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Letters of Hella Weyl to family in Ribnitz, sent from Huttenstrasse Zurich 1929-1932 |
1 | |||
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