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Gerhard Thomsen

German mathematician (1899-1934)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ1464822 ↗
Source-derived summary

Gerhard Thomsen (23 June 1899 – 4 January 1934) was a German mathematician, probably best known for his work in various branches of geometry.

Life

Thomsen was born on 23 June 1899 in Hamburg. His father, Georg Thomsen, was a physician. Thomsen grew up in Hamburg and attended the Johanneum (gymnasium/highschool) from 1908 to 1917. After completing school he served in the army during the last year of World War I. In 1919 he became of the first students at the newly founded University of Hamburg majoring in mathematics and natural science. Aside from a temporary interlude Thomsen studied in Hamburg until 1923. He received a certification to teach at highschools the fall of 1922 and finally his PhD in the summer of the following year. After he worked shortly as an assistant at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology before returning to Hamburg in a similar capacity in the spring of 1925. While working on his habilitation thesis Thomsen spend one year in Rome on Rockefeller grant to study with Tullio Levi-Civita. He received his habilitation in Hamburg in 1928 and started a position as a tenured professor at the University of Rostock in the fall of 1929.

Editorial summary

“Gerhard Thomsen” enters the record as german mathematician (1899-1934). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Gerhard, Thomsen and German can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1899, 1934, 1908, 1917—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1899-06-23. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Gerhard, Thomsen and German.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Gerhard Thomsen” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Gerhard, Thomsen and German provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1464822. VIAF identifies the subject as 371323. The Library of Congress control number is n84802563. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1899, 1934, 1908 and 1917.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. 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.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Gerhard Thomsen”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Gerhard Thomsen primary sources, Gerhard Thomsen archive and Gerhard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Gerhard Thomsen”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Gerhard Thomsen” 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.