Scholar and the State: In Search of Van der Waerden

Bartel Leendert van der Waerden was a distinguished algebraist, physicist, statistician, historian, author, and above all one of the leading algebraic geometers of his time. He made major contributions to algebraic geometry, abstract algebra, quantum mechanics, and other fields. He liberally published on the history of mathematics. Among the many books he wrote, the 2-volume work "Moderne Algebra" is one of the most influential and popular mathematical books ever written. It is therefore surprising that no monograph has been dedicated to his life and work. B.L. van der Waerden is not an easy person to understand. In attempting to understand his life, the author assembled thousands of documents from numerous archives in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States which revealed fascinating and often surprising new information about van der Waerden. Soifer traces van der Waerden s early years in a family of great Dutch public servants and his time as professor in Leipzig during the entire Nazi period. We encounter heroes and villains and a much more numerous group in between these two extremes. One of them is the subject of this book.