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Eric Reissner papers

 Collection
Identifier: 6100

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Content Description

More than 200 letters, many of them in German, written to Eric Riessner (1913-1996), a German-born mathematician. Correspondents include Reissner's father, Hans, a prominent German aeronatuical engineer whose avocation was mathematical physics; Bernhard Hermann Neumann, a German-born British-Australian mathematician who was a leading figure in group theory; William Prager, a German expert in the fields of vibrations, plasticity and the theory of structures; and many other prominent scientists as well as other friends of the Reissners.

Dates

  • Creation: 1927-1968
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1936-1940

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Biographical / Historical

Eric Reissner (1913-1996) was born in Aachen, Germany on 1913 January 5 to aeronautical engineer Hans Reissner and his wife. The Reissners were at the center of a community of prominent German-born scientists who emigrated to the United States, leaving their German homeland behind in the years preceding World War II. Eric Reissner was a mathematician whose work in applied mechanics helped broaden the theoretical understanding of how solid objects react under stress and led to advances in both civil and aerospace engineering.

He came from a family background in engineering: his father, Hans Reissner (1874-1967), was a prominent German aeronautical engineer whose avocation was mathematical physics. During World War I, Hans Reissner was awarded the Iron Cross second class (for civilians) for his pioneering work on aircraft design. He was the founder of the Aerodynamics Institute at the Aachen Technische Hochschule, but moved to work at his alma mater, the Technische Hochschule Berlin. Under the Third Reich, the senior Reissner was able to work in the aircraft industry even though he did not have an "Arierzeugnis." His son Eric therefore grew up in Berlin, eventually graduating with honors from the Technische Hochschule Berlin in the Fall of 1935. Accepting a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he moved to the U.S. in 1937 and received a Ph.D. in mathematics there, getting married and staying in Boston. He would eventually become a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics, remaining there from 1939-1969. In 1938, his mother and father emigrated to the U.S. and the elder Reissner taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology (1938-1944) and the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1944-1954). Eric Reissner is most known academically for a theory for flat plates with transverse shear definitions, variational principles for linear and nonlinear elasticity theory, and a simultaneous equation formulation for axi-symmetric finite deformations of elastic shells of revolution. He published around 300 research articles throughout his career and received a multitude of fellowships and academic awards.

Because of the family's strong and inter-generational connection to the scientific community in Germany, many people looking to leave Germany would contact them for support or as a reference. Such was the case with Kurt Wohl, a prominent chemical engineer who came to the U.S. and eventually became a professor at the University of Delaware; Reissner was asked to help with a statement that would allow Wohl's wife, born in Switzerland, to come to the U.S. along with her children. Another example is that of Rolf Landshoff, a scientist for whom Albert Einstein himself wrote a letter of reference, who contacted Reissner for support as he worked to stay in the U.S. He was able to find his way to the University of Minnesota through a Jewish student organization, and eventually was one of the scientists at the nuclear testing site at Los Alamos, later working in applied physics.

Another letter is from William Prager, an expert in the fields of vibrations, plasticity, and the theory of structures. He had served as the acting director of the Institute of Applied Mathematics at the University of Goettingen, but was dismissed in 1933 for his anti-Nazi views. He successfully sued the German government, thereby winning a year's back pay and an offer to return to his work; however, he decided by this time it was best to leave Germany for a position as a professor of mechanics at Istanbul University. He was eventually recruited by Brown University, where he became professor of applied mathematics.

Unfortunately, not everyone who contacted Reissner found the same fortunate fate. One letter from scientist Sylvain Fleischer of Cottbus, who sent an accompanying curriculum vitae appealing for help from the Reissners; he is now listed in the JewishGen Necrology database as a holocaust martyr. Another correspondent and friend of Reissner's from Berlin, Gerti Ascher, is listed in the Yad Vashem database of Shoah victims as being deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto and then sent to Auschwitz, where she was killed.

Extent

1.4 Linear Feet (2 boxes)

Language of Materials

German

Abstract

The Reissner papers consist of more than 200 letters, many of them in German, written to Eric Reissner (1913-1996), a German-born mathematician. Correspondents include Reissner's father, Hans, a prominent German aeronatuical engineer whose avocation was mathematical physics; Bernhard Hermann Neumann, a German-born British-Australian mathematician who was a leading figure in group theory; William Prager, a German expert in the fields of vibrations, plasticity and the theory of structures; and many other prominent scientists as well as other friends of the Reissners. Reissner was born in Aachen, Germany on 1913 January 5 to aeronautical engineer Hans Reissner and his wife. The Reissners were at the center of a community of prominent German-born scientists who emigrated to the United States, leaving their German homeland behind in the years preceding World War II. Reissner was a mathematician whose work in applied mechanics helped broaden the theoretical understanding of how solid objects react under stress and led to advances in both civil and aerospace engineering.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from The Bookshop, November 24, 2014.

Related Materials

Eric Reissner Papers, UC San Diego Special Collections and Archives, MSS 0416

Hans Reissner Papers, UC San Diego Special Collections and Archives, MSS 0030

Processing Information

A few sets of letters from notable correspondents have been separated and put in their own folder.

Title
Finding aid for the Eric Reissner papers
Status
Completed
Author
Emily Hodgkins
Date
2015 August
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the USC Libraries Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Doheny Memorial Library 206
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles California 90089-0189 United States