Arthur Moritz Schoenflies

Arthur Moritz Schoenflies (German: [ˈʃøːnfliːs]; 17 April 1853 – 27 May 1928), sometimes written as Schönflies, was a German mathematician, known for his contributions to the application of group theory to crystallography, and for work in topology.

Arthur Moritz Schoenflies
Born	(1853-04-17)17 April 1853 Landsberg an der Warthe, Brandenburg, Prussia
Died	27 May 1928(1928-05-27) (aged 75) Frankfurt am Main, Hesse-Nassau, Germany
Resting place	Frankfurt Main Cemetery
Alma mater	University of Berlin
Known for	Schoenflies problem Jordan–Schoenflies theorem Schoenflies notation Schoenflies displacement
Spouse	Emma Levin (1868–1939)
Children	Hanna (1897–1985), Albert (1898–1944), Elizabeth (1900–1991), Eva (1901–1944), Lotte (1905–1981)
Scientific career
Fields	Group theory, crystallography, and topology
Thesis	Synthetisch-geometrische Untersuchungen über Flächen zweiten Grades und eine aus ihnen abgeleitete Regelfläche (1877)
Doctoral advisors	Ernst Kummer Karl Weierstrass

Schoenflies' grave at the Frankfurt Main Cemetery

Schoenflies was born in Landsberg an der Warthe (modern Gorzów, Poland). Arthur Schoenflies married Emma Levin (1868–1939) in 1896. He studied under Ernst Kummer and Karl Weierstrass,[1] and was influenced by Felix Klein.

The Schoenflies problem is to prove that an ${\displaystyle (n-1)}$-sphere in Euclidean n-space bounds a topological ball, however embedded. This question is much more subtle than it initially appears.

He studied at the University of Berlin from 1870 to 1875. He obtained a doctorate in 1877,[1] and in 1878 he was a teacher at a school in Berlin. In 1880, he went to Colmar to teach.

Schoenflies was a frequent contributor to Klein's encyclopedia: In 1898 he wrote on set theory, in 1902 on kinematics, and on projective geometry in 1910.

He was a great-uncle of Walter Benjamin.