Born: 1880
Died: 1942 (Piaski, Poland)
Margarethe Kahn (known as Grete Kahn) was a German mathematician and Holocaust victim. She was born on August 27, 1880, and went missing after deportation to Piaski, Poland on March 28, 1942. Kahn was among the pioneering women who obtained a doctorate in Germany, specializing in the topology of algebraic curves.
Kahn’s early life was marked by personal tragedy. She was the daughter of Albert Kahn, a merchant and owner of a flannel factory, and his wife Johanne. Unfortunately, Johanne passed away in 1882 when Margarethe was just two years old. Five years later, Albert married Johanne’s younger sister, Julie, and they had a daughter named Martha. Margarethe also had an older brother named Otto.
Education played a crucial role in shaping Kahn’s path. In a time when opportunities for girls were limited, she attended elementary school from 1887 to 1896 and then enrolled in the Higher School for Girls. To prepare for her Abitur (German high school leaving examination), which was not easily obtainable for young women in Hesse at the time, Kahn took private lessons until 1904. Eventually, she was granted permission to take her Abitur at the Royal Gymnasium in Bad Hersfeld, placing her among the few German women who had achieved this milestone.
Since women were officially allowed to attend university lectures in Prussia starting from the winter semester of 1908–09, Kahn and her friend Klara Löbenstein initially became guest students at the University of Berlin and the University of Göttingen. Kahn also attended mathematics lectures at the Technical University of Berlin. Her studies focused on mathematics, physics, and propaedeutics, with prominent mathematicians such as David Hilbert, Felix Klein, Woldemar Voigt, and Georg Elias Müller as her mentors. In Göttingen, she worked on Hilbert’s sixteenth problem, a significant challenge regarding the topology of algebraic curves in complex projective planes. Together with Löbenstein, Kahn developed novel approaches to tackle this problem, contributing valuable insights to Hilbert’s research.
Obtaining her doctorate proved to be a challenging endeavor. Although she faced opposition from the Berlin faculty, Kahn received support from the University of Göttingen and Felix Klein, a renowned mathematician. In 1909, under the supervision of David Hilbert in Göttingen, Kahn successfully defended her dissertation titled Eine allgemeine Methode zur Untersuchung der Gestalten algebraischer Kurven (A general method to investigate the shapes of algebraic curves). This achievement made her one of the first German women to earn a doctorate in mathematics.
Margarethe Kahn’s accomplishments were remarkable, given the barriers women faced during that time period. Her dedication and talent in the field of mathematics laid the foundation for future generations of female mathematicians. However, tragically, her subsequent life and career were cut short by the Holocaust. Deported to Piaski, Poland in 1942, she went missing, becoming one of the countless victims of this horrific event.