11 Facts About Ernst Zermelo

Ernst Zermelo graduated from Berlin's Luisenstadtisches Gymnasium in 1889.

Ernst Zermelo then studied mathematics, physics and philosophy at the University of Berlin, the University of Halle, and the University of Freiburg.

Ernst Zermelo finished his doctorate in 1894 at the University of Berlin, awarded for a dissertation on the calculus of variations.

In 1897, Ernst Zermelo went to the University of Gottingen, at that time the leading centre for mathematical research in the world, where he completed his habilitation thesis in 1899.

In 1910, Ernst Zermelo left Gottingen upon being appointed to the chair of mathematics at the University of Zurich, which he resigned in 1916.

Ernst Zermelo was appointed to an honorary chair at the University of Freiburg in 1926, which he resigned in 1935 because he disapproved of Adolf Hitler's regime.

Ernst Zermelo began to work on the problems of set theory under Hilbert's influence and in 1902 published his first work concerning the addition of transfinite cardinals.

Ernst Zermelo's proof of the well-ordering theorem, based on the powerset axiom and the axiom of choice, was not accepted by all mathematicians, mostly because the axiom of choice was a paradigm of non-constructive mathematics.

In 1908, Ernst Zermelo succeeded in producing an improved proof making use of Dedekind's notion of the "chain" of a set, which became more widely accepted; this was mainly because that same year he offered an axiomatization of set theory.

Ernst Zermelo began to axiomatize set theory in 1905; in 1908, he published his results despite his failure to prove the consistency of his axiomatic system.

See the article on Ernst Zermelo set theory for an outline of this paper, together with the original axioms, with the original numbering.