Eduard Heine
German mathematician (1821–1881)

Heinrich Eduard Heine (16 March 1821 – 21 October 1881) was a German mathematician.
Heine became known for results on special functions and in real analysis. In particular, he authored an important treatise on spherical harmonics and Legendre functions (Handbuch der Kugelfunctionen). He also investigated basic hypergeometric series. He introduced the Mehler–Heine formula.
Biography
Heinrich Eduard Heine was born on 16 March 1821 in Berlin, as the eighth child of banker Karl Heine and his wife Henriette Märtens. Eduard was initially home schooled, then studied at the Friedrichswerdersche Gymnasium and Köllnische Gymnasium in Berlin. In 1838, after graduating from gymnasium, he enrolled at the University of Berlin, but transferred to the University of Göttingen to attend the mathematics lectures of Carl Friedrich Gauss and Moritz Stern. In 1840 Heine returned to Berlin, where he studied mathematics under Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, while also attending classes of Jakob Steiner and Johann Franz Encke. In 1842 he was awarded a PhD by the University of Berlin for a thesis on differential equations submitted with Enno Dirksen and Martin Ohm as advisors.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Eduard Heine” as german mathematician (1821–1881). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as german mathematician (1821–1881). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q77301. VIAF identifies the subject as 64763484. The Library of Congress control number is no2002062568. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1821, 1881, 1838 and 1840.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Eduard Heine”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Eduard Heine primary sources, Eduard Heine archive and Eduard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Eduard Heine”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Eduard Heine” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.