Where We Are Now: At the End of our Conference
(updated September 19, 2009)
In
view of Hermann Günther Graßmann's 200th birthday in 2009 we had
organized this conference honouring Graßmann, where new insights into
the works and influences of this great scientist had been presented.
The
last major international conference dealing with Graßmann was dedicated
to the 150th anniversary of the first publication of the “lineale
Ausdehnungslehre” and took place in 1994 on the island Rügen. Two
publications with high quality contributions resulted from this
conference. Almost 15 years have passed since then and the Rügen
conference has stimulated a multitude of new publications, some having
a mathematical approach, some dealing with the philosophical issues and
some exploring the pedagogical context.
In
preparation of this conference two books have been published: "Hermann
Graßmann – Biography" the English translation of the German Graßmann
biography from 2006 and a book of sources "Hermann Graßmann – Roots and
Traces. Autographs and Unknown Documents" (German and Englisch) – which
is meant to complement the biography.
These
two books can only provide rather general material, but the wealth of
relevant scientific and historical aspects require the work of many
others. A conference that tries to shed light on many of these diverse
aspects will be a dignified and worthy way of honouring of Graßmann. So
this conference aims to collect all contributions which reflect
Graßmann-related topics in an original way – be it from a mathematical,
philosophical, philological, political or pedagogical point of view.
This
conference will lead to a publication that, with detailed studies,
covers what has been left out or only insufficiently been dealt within
the biography and the source book and which will be the third part of a
documentation in honour of Hermann Graßmann: "From Past to Future:
Graßmann's Work in Context. Proceedings of the Graßmann Bicentennial
Conference".

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