Last Years

Abstract

In July 1862, Riemann married Elise Koch, a friend of his sister’s. This marriage brightened the last years of his life. In the fall of 1862 he caught a serious cold, and tuberculosis set in. Riemann spent his last years almost entirely in Italy. Thanks to a petition of Weber and Santorius von Waltershausen, the eminent researcher of Etna, he received government subsidies on three occasions for recuperation. He returned to Göttingen, but the climate was too severe for him, and he did not undertake to give lectures. Riemann’s last trip to Italy coincided with the beginning of war between Hanover and Prussia. He arrived in Italy on June 28, 1866, the day Hanover capitulated.

“I am always saddened when talented people die because earth needs them more than heaven does.”

Georg Lichtenberg