Ernst Kötter

Kötter graduated in 1884 from the University of Berlin under the supervision of Karl Weierstrass and Leopold Kronecker.[2]

Kötter's treatise "Fundamentals of a purely geometrical theory of algebraic plane curves" gained the 1886 prize of the Berlin Royal Academy.[3]

In 1901, he published his report on "The development of synthetic geometry from Monge to Staudt (1847)";[4] it had been sent to the press as early as 1897, but completion was deferred by Kötter's appointment to Aachen University and a subsequent persisting illness.[5] He constructed a mobile wood model to illustrate the theorems of Dandelin spheres.[6][7]

In a discussion with Schoenflies and Kötter, Hilbert reportedly uttered his famous quotation according to which points, lines, and planes in geometry could be named as well "tables, chairs, and beer mugs".[8]

• Ernst Kötter (Jun 1884). Beiträge zur Theorie der Osculationen bei ebenen Curven dritter Ordnung (Ph.D.). Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
• Ernst Kötter (1887). "Grundzüge einer rein geometrischen Theorie der algebraischen ebenen Kurven". Royal Academy of Berlin.
• Ernst Kötter (Oct 1888). "Die Hesse'sche Curve in rein geometrischer Behandlung". Mathematische Annalen. 34: 123–149. doi:10.1007/bf01446793. S2CID 119585670. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2019-08-10.
• Ernst Kötter (1891). "Einige Hauptsätze aus der Lehre von den Curven dritter Ordnung". Mathematische Annalen. 38 (2): 287–297. doi:10.1007/bf01199255. S2CID 120687043.
• Ernst Kötter (1892). "Ueber diejenigen Polyeder, die bei gegebener Gattung und gegebenem Volumen die kleinste Oberfläche besitzen. Erste Abhandlung". Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik. 110: 198–229.
• Ernst Kötter (1900). "Construction der Oberfläche zweiter Ordnung, welche neun gegebene Punkte enthält". Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung: 99–102.