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University of Göttingen


In the spring of 1915 Noether was invited by David Hilbert and Felix Klein to return to the University of Göttingen. Their effort to recruit her was blocked, however, by the philologists and historians in the Philosophical faculty; women, they insisted, should not be hired in the role of Privatdozent. One colleague protested: "What will our soldiers think when they return to the university and find that they are required to learn at the feet of a woman?" Hilbert responded with indignation: "I do not see that the sex of the candidate is an argument against her admission as Privatdozent", he said. "After all, we are a university, not a bath house."

Noether left for Göttingen in late April; two weeks later, her mother died suddenly in Erlangen. She had previously received medical care for an eye condition, but its nature and impact on her death is unknown. Around the same time, Noether's father retired and her brother joined the German Army to serve in World War I. She returned to Erlangen for several weeks, mostly to care for her aging father.

When World War I ended, the German Revolution of 1918–1919 brought a significant change in social attitudes, including more rights for women. In 1919, the University of Göttingen allowed Noether to proceed with the Habilitation, a process to obtain the rank of Privatdozent. Her oral examination was in late May, and she successfully delivered her Habilitation lecture in June. Three years later, she received a letter from the Prussian Minister for Science, Art, and Public Education, in which he presented her the title of nicht beamteter ausserordentlicher Professor (an untenured professor with limited internal administrative rights and functions ). This was an unpaid "extraordinary" professorship, not the higher "ordinary" professorship, which was a civil-service position. Although it recognized the importance of her work, the position still provided no salary; not until she was appointed to the special position of Lehrauftrag für Algebra one year later was she paid for her lectures.

In addition to her mathematical insight, Noether was respected for her consideration of others. Although she sometimes acted rudely toward those who disagreed with her, she nevertheless gained a reputation for constant helpfulness and patient guidance of new students. Her loyalty to mathematical precision caused one colleague to name her "a severe critic", but she combined this demand for accuracy with a nurturing attitude. A colleague later described her this way: "Completely unegotistical and free of vanity, she never claimed anything for herself, but promoted the works of her students above all".

Her frugal lifestyle was at first a necessity of not receiving a salary; however, even after the university began paying her modestly in 1923, she lived a simple and modest life. She was paid more generously later in her life, but saved half of her salary to bequeath to her nephew, Gottfried E. Noether. Mostly unconcerned about appearance and manners, she focused on her studies to the exclusion of romance and fashion. Czech-American mathematician Olga Taussky-Todd described a luncheon in which Noether, wholly engrossed by a discussion of mathematics, "gesticulated wildly" as she ate and "spilled her food constantly and wiped it off from her dress, completely unperturbed". Her appearance-conscious students cringed as she retrieved the handkerchief from her blouse and ignored the increasing disarray of her hair during a lecture. Two female students once approached her during a break in a two-hour class to express their concern, but were unable to break through the energetic mathematics discussion she was having with other students.

Research and students
During her first years at Göttingen, she worked in an unpaid and undefined role; her family paid for her room and board, and supported her academic work. Her lectures were often advertised under Hilbert's name, and Noether would provide "assistance". However, soon after arriving, she demonstrated her value to the department by proving Noether's theorem, which shows that a conservation law can be derived from any differentiable symmetry of a physical system. American physicists Leon M. Lederman and Christopher T. Hill, in their book Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe, argue that Noether's theorem is "certainly one of the most important mathematical theorems ever proved in guiding the development of modern physics, possibly on a par with the Pythagorean theorem".

In 1920, Noether collaborated with a colleague named W. Schmeidler on a paper about the theory of ideals, in which they defined left and right ideals. The following year she published a landmark paper called Idealtheorie in Ringbereichen, analyzing ascending chain conditions with regard to ideals. Canadian mathematician Irving Kaplansky has called this work "revolutionary"; it gave rise to the term "Noetherian ring".



Soon afterwards, she began supervising doctoral students, including Grete Hermann, who later spoke reverently of her "dissertation-mother". Noether also supervised Max Deuring, who distinguished himself as an undergraduate and went on to contribute significantly to the field of arithmetic geometry; Hans Fitting, who established Fitting's theorem as well as the Fitting lemma; and Zeng Jiongzhi, who proved Tsen's theorem. She also worked closely with Wolfgang Krull, originator of Krull's theorem.

Her lectures are described as enlightening but intense. She spoke quickly (reflecting the speed of her thoughts, many said) and demanded great concentration from her students. Students who disliked her style often felt alienated; one wrote in a notebook with regard to a class that ended at 1:00 pm: "It's 12:50, thank God!" Some pupils felt that she relied too much on spontaneous discussions. Her most dedicated students, however, relished the enthusiasm with which she approached mathematics, especially since her lectures often built on earlier work they had done together. She developed a close circle of colleagues and students who thought along similar lines and that typically excluded those who did not. "Outsiders" who occasionally visited Noether's lectures usually spent only 30 minutes in the room before leaving in frustration or confusion. A regular student at one such instance said: "The enemy has been defeated; he has cleared out". Noether showed a devotion to the subject and her students that went beyond the regular school day. Once, when the building was closed for a state holiday, she gathered the class on the steps outside, led them through the woods, and lectured at a local coffee house. Later, after she had been dismissed by the Third Reich, she invited students into her home to discuss their future plans and mathematical concepts.

In 1924, the young Dutch mathematician Bartel Leendert van der Waerden arrived at the University of Göttingen. He began working immediately with Noether, who provided invaluable methods of abstract conceptualization. He said later that her originality was "absolute beyond comparison". In 1931, he published Moderne Algebra, a central text in the field; its second volume borrows heavily from Noether's work. Although she did not seek recognition, he acknowledged his debt to her in a note for the seventh edition reading "based in part on lectures by E. Artin and E. Noether". She sometimes allowed her colleagues and students to receive credit for her ideas, helping them develop their careers at the expense of her own.

Van der Waerden's visit was part of an international convergence on Göttingen, which became a central hub of activity among mathematicians worldwide. From 1926 to 1930, Russian topologist Pavel Alexandrov lectured at the university, and quickly became good friends with Noether. He began referring to her as der Noether, using the masculine article as a term of endearment to show his respect. She tried to arrange for him to obtain a position at Göttingen as a regular professor, but was able to help him secure only a scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation. They met regularly and enjoyed discussions about the intersections of algebra and topology. In his 1935 memorial address, Alexandrov named her "the greatest woman mathematician of all time".