Wolfgang Franz (mathematician)

This article is about the German mathematician. For the economist, see Wolfgang Franz (economist).

Wolfgang Franz
Born4 October 1905 (1905-10-04)
Magdeburg, German Empire
Died26 April 1996(1996-04-26) (aged 90)
Frankfurt, Germany
CitizenshipGerman
EducationUniversity of Kiel
Known forReidemeister–Franz torsion
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
Topology
Algebraic number theory
InstitutionsGoethe University Frankfurt
University of Kiel
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
University of Göttingen
University of Giessen
Doctoral advisorHelmut Hasse
Doctoral studentsReinhard Selten

Wolfgang Franz (born 4 October 1905 in Magdeburg, Germany; died 26 April 1996[1]) was a German mathematician[2][3] who specialised in topology particularly in 3-manifolds, which he generalized to higher dimensions.[4] He is known for the Reidemeister–Franz torsion. He also made important contributions to the theory of lens spaces.

During World War II Franz led a group of five mathematicians, recruited by Wilhelm Fenner, and which included Ernst Witt, Georg Aumann, Alexander Aigner, Oswald Teichmüller and Johann Friedrich Schultze, to form the backbone of the new mathematical research department in the field of cryptology, in the late 1930s. This would eventually be known as: Section IVc of Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (abbr. OKW/Chi).[5][6][7] After the war, he returned to teach at the Goethe University Frankfurt and was awarded the Chair of Mathematics in 1949. In 1967 he became the Chairman of the German Mathematical Society. He became Dean of the Faculty of Science for several periods starting in 1950 before being promoted to emeritus professor in 1974.[8]

  1. ^ Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main
  2. ^ Friedrich L. Bauer (24 November 2006). Decrypted Secrets: Methods and Maxims of Cryptology. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 3–. ISBN 978-3-540-48121-8.
  3. ^ Wolfgang Franz at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  4. ^ Franz, W. (1935), "Ueber die Torsion einer Ueberdeckung", J. Reine Angew. Math., 173: 245–254.
  5. ^ "Army Security Agency: DF-187 The Career of Wilhelm Fenner with Special Regard to his activity in the field of Cryptography and Cryptanalysis (PDF)". Google Drive. 1 December 1949. p. 7. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  6. ^ TICOM reports DF-187 A-G and ‘European Axis Signal Intelligence in World War II’ vol 2
  7. ^ "TICOM DF-197 - Answers written by Professor Doctor Wolfgang Franz to questions from ASA Europe". Internet Archive. TICOM. September 1949. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference pdf was invoked but never defined (see the help page).