Abstract
The German subcommittee of IMUK was surely one of the most active of the various national committees, in particular due to the enormous organisational capacities of Felix Klein who successfully forged teams that worked collectively to produce reports of remarkable quality. The great number of reports was due, on the one hand, to the territorial structure of the German confederation with autonomy in education for all of its members, characterised by differing cultural traditions, and, on the other hand, to Klein’s conception to achieve not only reports on the state of mathematics instruction but to initiate volumes reflecting – for the first time – on basic issues of mathematics education, a discipline still in its very early stages of development.
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Notes
- 1.
Klein promoted then decisively Lietzmann’s career. In 1908, Lietzmann, although quite young, was an Oberlehrer of mathematics and physics – traditionally a rank for senior teachers – at the Oberrealschule in Wuppertal-Barmen. In 1913, he was called to Jena, as director of the Oberrealschule there. At Jena University, he began to give lectures on the teaching of mathematics, as an extraofficial activity, much favoured by Klein – as a step to institutionalise didactics of mathematics within teacher training. After WW I, Klein succeeded in having Lietzmann called to Göttingen as director of the Oberrealschule, combined with a Reformrealgymnasium – today, the school is named Felix-Klein-Gymnasium. Lietzmann remained in this position until his retirement in 1946. He continued in Göttingen with a Lehrauftrag for didactics of mathematics at the university.
The range of Lietzmann’s activities can hardly be exaggerated. Besides becoming the secretary of DAMNU in 1910, too, he served over decades in the teacher examination board at Göttingen University, but mainly he was the leading didactician for mathematics at secondary schools – as editor of the ZfmnU and as successful author of a Methodik – guiding over decades mathematics Gymnasium teachers in their practice. Moreover, he published an enormous number of books, mainly for the use by teachers. See my biography of Lietzmann in the ICMI officers gallery: http://www.icmihistory.unito.it/portrait/lietzmann.php.
His relation to Nazism is doubtful but not yet clarified. One reason for doubts is his autobiography; published posthumously, his friends deleted the chapter on the Nazi period; my search for its manuscript was without success. Another hint are historical booklets, published only in the Nazi period, emphasising the Teutonic contributions to geometry in prehistory.
- 2.
Paul Stäckel is well-known for his seminal research on the history of non-Euclidean geometry. His contributions for the IMUK work are very important, too: the German report on the role of mathematics at the technical colleges and the related international report on the role of mathematics in the formation of engineers, for the 1914 Paris IMUK Congress.
- 3.
The obituary by Behm describes Treutlein’s rather uncommon reform conceptions and realisations (Behm 1912). Treutlein is the author of a famous textbook for geometry teaching based on Anschauung (1911), thus in neat agreement with Klein’s conception for a reformed mathematics curriculum.
- 4.
Pietzker was likewise obstinate in rejecting non-Euclidean geometry.
- 5.
The minutes of the first meeting are missing, as Klein noted (SUB Klein II, fol. 17).
- 6.
Not much is known about his biography. After Treutlein’s death in 1912, the DMV choose Thaer as his successor as IMUK delegate and then Timerding became Thaer’s successor in the IMUK subcommission.
- 7.
When I sent copies of this book in the 1970s to Geoffrey Howson and to Trevor Fletcher, both so highly knowledgeble of the British education system, they both highly admired the accurate and concise description and analysis of mathematics teaching in that complex system.
- 8.
Since quite a long time, I am working on a book about Lorey’s life and work. There, this correspondence is edited. The book has as title Wilhelm Lorey – Mathematikgeschichte unter der Ägide von Felix Klein. This manuscript will be quoted here as “Schubring: Lorey”.
- 9.
The complete list of these Abhandlungen publications is given in Appendix II.
- 10.
Behnke continued to use “IMUK”.
References
Sources
Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, Handschriftenabteilung:
Nachlass Felix Klein, Cod. Ms. F. Klein
• 44. Pädagogische Korrespondenz 1908–1913. SUB Klein I
• 51. Pädagogische Korrespondenz 1910–1921. SUB Klein II
Nachlass Walther Lietzmann, Cod. Ms. Walther Lietzmann
• Briefe Klein an Lietzmann, 1–100 (1908–1911). SUB Lietz I
• Briefe Klein an Lietzmann, 101–200 (1911/12). SUB Lietz II
• Briefe Klein an Lietzmann, 201–310 (1912–1919). SUB Lietz III
Stadtbibliothek Göttingen
Nachlass Walther Lietzmann:
• B 2. Sitzung der IMUK in Paris 1914 [StB Gö I]
• B 5. IMUK StB Gö II]
• C 4. Kongreß in Oslo, 1936 [stB Gö III]
Publications
Behm, Hans Wolfgang. 1912. Hans Treutlein. Zeitschrift für mathematischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht 43: 521–530.
Gutzmer, August. 1912. The Work Done by the German Subcommittee on the Teaching of Mathematics. Science, New Series 36(937): 818–820.
Gutzmer, August. 1916. Bericht anlässlich der Fertigstellung der “Abhandlungen”. In Berichte und Mitteilungen, veranlasst durch die Internationale Mathematische Unterrichtskommission, 1. Folge, Heft 12, ed. Walter Lietzmann, 331–357. Leipzig: Teubner.
Katz, David. 1913. Psychologie und Mathematischer Unterricht. Abhandlungen über den mathematischen Unterricht in Deutschland. Band III, Heft 2. Leipzig: Teubner.
Lietzmann, Walther. 1908. Die Grundlagen der Geometrie im Unterricht (mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Schulen Italiens). Zeitschrift für mathematischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht 39: 177–195.
Lietzmann, Walther. 1921. Die internationale mathematische Unterrichtskommission. Zeitschrift für mathematischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht 53: 31–33.
Schubring, Gert. 1986. Wilhelm Lorey (1873–1955) und die Methoden mathematik-geschichtlicher Forschung. Mathematica didactica 9: 75–87.
Schubring, Gert. 1989. Pure and Applied Mathematics in Divergent Institutional Settings in Germany: the Role and Impact of Felix Klein. In The History of Modern Mathematics. Volume II: Institutions and Applications eds. David Rowe, John McCleary, 171–220. Boston: Academic Press.
Schubring, Gert. 2008. The Origins and the Early History of ICMI. International Journal for the History of Mathematics Education 3(2): 3–33.
Schubring, Gert. 2012. ‘Experimental pedagogy’ in Germany – a case study in searching for the roots of PME. Research in Mathematics Education 14 (3): 221–235.
Schubring, Gert. 2016. “Die Entwicklung der Mathematikdidaktik in Deutschland”. Mathematische Semesterberichte 63(1): 3–18.
Schubring, Gert [Schubring: Lorey]. Wilhelm Lorey – Mathematikgeschichte unter der Ägide von Felix Klein. Book manuscript.
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Appendices
SUB Klein I, fol.s 112–113. The evening before: Welcome address, 20:30, in Brasserie aux trois Suisses.
Source: L’Enseignement Mathématique, vol. 21, 1920/21, pp. 321–324.
Appendix I: The Agenda for the Brussels IMUK Meeting
SUB Klein I, fol.s 112–113. The evening before: Welcome address, 20:30, in Brasserie aux trois Suisses.
Appendix II: The German IMUK Publications
Source: L’Enseignement Mathématique, vol. 21, 1920/21, pp. 321–324.
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Schubring, G. (2019). The German IMUK Subcommission. In: Karp, A. (eds) National Subcommissions of ICMI and their Role in the Reform of Mathematics Education. International Studies in the History of Mathematics and its Teaching. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14865-2_3
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