Birth of David Hilbert

David Hilbert was born on 23 January 1862 in Kaliningrad. A German mathematician, Hilbert was one of the most influential mathematicians of his time and spent most of his career at the University of Göttingen. He made fundamental contributions to algebra, number theory, the foundations of geometry and the theory of the spaces now named after him. At the 1900 International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris he presented a list of twenty-three open problems that guided research for much of the century. He also tried to place all of mathematics on a firm logical foundation, a project later complicated by Gödel's results. Many leading figures, such as Emmy Noether, worked in his circle until the Nazi regime dismantled it.

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