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Leopold Löwenheim (26 June 1878, Krefeld Germany – 5 May 1957, Berlin) was a German mathematician, known for his work in mathematical logic. The Nazi regime forced him to retire because under the Nuremberg Laws he was considered only three quarters Aryan. In 1943 much of his work was destroyed during a bombing raid on Berlin. Nevertheless, he survived the Second World War, after which he resumed teaching mathematics.

Löwenheim (1915) gave the first proof of what is now known as the Löwenheim–Skolem theorem, often considered the starting point for model theory.

Important publications

Primary:

• 1915, "Über Möglichkeiten im Relativkalkül," Mathematische Annalen 76: 447–470. Translated as "On possibilities in the calculus of relatives" in Jean van Heijenoort, 1967. A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879–1931. Harvard Univ. Press: 228–251.

Secondary:

• Brady, Geraldine, 2000. From Peirce to Skolem. North Holland. Contains a detailed exegesis of the proof in Löwenheim (1915), and discusses how Thoralf Skolem simplified that proof and extended the scope and generality of the theorem.

External links

• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Leopold Löwenheim", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Lowenheim.html  .