Hilbert’s Space-Filling Curve

Abstract

David Hilbert (1862–1943), who, more than anybody else, set the course for the mathematicians of the 20th century, was born in Königsberg, East Prussia (which was renamed Kaliningrad when it was incorporated into Russia in 1945) and died in Göttingen. He studied at the University of Königsberg, except for the second semester, which he spent at the University of Heidelberg, and received his doctor’s degree in 1884 C.L.F. Lindemann (who, in 1882, succeeded in proving that π is transcendental) and, especially, A. Hurwitz were his most influential mentors at that time. After some postdoctoral studies in Leipzig and Paris, he returned to the University of Königsberg in 1886. In 1892, he became the successor of A. Hurwitz (who had left for Zürich), and in 1893, he succeeded to the chair that was held up to that time by Lindemann. In 1895, he followed a call to the University of Göttingen, where he taught until his retirement in 1930.