Mathwar/Personlist/Hasse Helmut
Helmut Hasse
(* August 25th 1898, † December 26th 1979)
German mathematician working in algebraic number theory, known for fundamental contributions to class field theory
Life
After serving in the navy in World War I, he studied at the University of Göttingen, and then at Marburg under Kurt Hensel, writing a dissertation in 1921 containing the Hasse–Minkowski theorem, as it is now called, on quadratic forms over number fields. He then held positions at Kiel, Halle and Marburg. He was Hermann Weyl's replacement at Göttingen in 1934; politically he was a right-wing nationalist, and applied for membership in the Nazi Party in 1937 but this was denied to him because he also had Jewish ancestors. After war work he returned to Göttingen briefly in 1945 but was excluded by the British authorities. After brief appointments in Berlin from 1948 he settled permanently as professor in Hamburg.