The Impact of Von Staudt’s Foundations of Geometry

Abstract

What did Projective Geometry mean before von Staudt? It owed much to Monge, but its true founder was J. V. Poncelet.

This is the translation of the non-biographical part of the commemoration lecture on the centenary of von Staudt’s death, held on June 20, 1967, in Erlangen. Biographical details on von Staudt can be found in: Archiv der Mathematik und Physik 49 (1869), Literarischer Bericht CLXXXXIII, and further in: M. Noether, Zur Erinnerung an Karl Georg Christian van Staudt, Festschrift der Universität Erlangen zur Feier des 80. Geburtstages Sr. Kgl. Hoheit des Prinzregenten Luitpold von Bayern, Erlangen-Leipzig, A. Deichert 1901. Carl Georg Christian von Staudt (January 24, 1798 Rothenburg ob der Tauber — June 1, 1867 Erlangen) was a student of Gauss; got a Ph.D. degree at Erlangen; was a professor at the Gymnasium in Würzburg (1822) and Nürnberg (1827); and a university professor at Erlangen (1835). Descendants of von Staudt are still living in the house in Rothenburg where he was born.

Von Staudt’s principal works are: Geometrie der Lage 1847, Nürnberg, Bauer & Raspe. Beiträge zur Geometrie der Lage, 1856, 1857, 1860, idem.