• Skip navigation
  • Skip to navigation
  • Skip to the bottom
Simulate organization breadcrumb open Simulate organization breadcrumb close
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
  • Deutsch
  • UnivIS
  • Contacts and directions
  • Careers at FAU
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Navigation Navigation close
  • FAU
    • News
    • Welcome to FAU
    • Strategy and objectives
    • History and remembrance
    • Campus locations at FAU
    • Site development at FAU
    • Organisation and committees
    • Legal regulations
    • Finding your way around: contacts and directions
    • Faculties and organisational units
      • Faculties
      • Universitätsklinikum Erlangen
      • Central research institutions
      • Collaboration and partnerships
    Portal FAU
  • People
    • Students
    • Employees
    • Researchers
    • Alumni
    • Working at FAU
      • Jobs at FAU
      • Professorships
      • Energy technology and technical building services
      • Vocational training at FAU
      • Training and career development at FAU
    • Gender/Diversity/Family
    • New at FAU/Onboarding/Incoming
    • Offboarding/Outgoing
    Portal People
  • Education
    • Student orientation
    • Degree programmes
    • Application and enrolment
      • Application and enrolment for internationals
    • Advice and services
    • Study organisation
      • Terms from the university life
      • Semester dates
      • Re-registration and semester fees
      • Online platforms for organising your studies
      • Start of the semester
      • Degree programme and examination regulations (Link to our German website)
    • International
      • Information for international applicants
      • Going abroad
    • Student life
    • Teaching at FAU
      • Quality management in teaching and studying
    • Information for parents
    Portal Education
  • Research
    • Research profile
      • Key Research Priorities at FAU
      • Research Focus Areas at the Faculties
      • Rankings
    • Collaborative research
      • EU collaborative projects
      • DFG projects
      • Federal projects
      • Collaborative research in Bavaria
    • Outstanding individual research
      • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
      • Alexander von Humboldt Professorship
      • ERC grants
      • Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize
    • Research projects and partnerships
      • Max Planck Institutes
      • Fraunhofer Institutes
      • Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg
      • Energie Campus Nürnberg
      • Nuremberg Campus of Technology
      • Medical Valley
    • Welcome Centre for International Researchers
    • Graduate Centre
      • Doctoral degrees at FAU
      • Service for Young Academics
    • Services for researchers
      • Funding, advice and submitting applications
      • Publications and research data
      • Research information system
      • Science communication
      • FAUconnect
    • Responsible research
    Portal Research
  • Outreach
    • Events
    • Inventions and patents
      • Intellectual property (IP) policy of FAU
      • Service for inventors
    • Innovation and start-ups
      • Partnerships and collaborations
      • Innovation platforms and networks
      • Consulting services for start-up businesses
    • Professional development
    • Donations
      • FAU Innovation Fund
      • Deutschlandstipendium (Germany Scholarship)
    • FAU for companies and organisations
    • Science for citizens
    • FAU Shop
    • Press Office
    Portal Outreach
  • Corona-Info
  1. Home
  2. FAU
  3. History and remembrance
  4. Collections and museums
  5. Mathematical Collection

Mathematical Collection

In page navigation: History and remembrance
  • History of FAU
  • Collections and museums
    • Anatomical Collection
    • Antique and Classical Collection I
    • Antique and Classical Collection II
    • Astronomical Collection
    • Botanical collections
    • Botanical Garden and Scented Garden
    • Computer Technology Collection Erlangen (ISER)
    • Ethnological Collection
    • Geoscience collections
    • History of School Education Collection
    • Martius Pharmacognostic Collection
    • Mathematical Collection
    • Medical Collection
    • Medical Moulage Collection
    • Musical Instrument Collection
    • Pathological Collection
    • Prehistory and Protohistory Collection
    • University Library
    • Zoological Collection
    • University Archive
  • Topics and Projects
    • Controversial remembrance – the problems surrounding names given to streets and academic institutions
    • Publication: “Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen 1918-1945”
    • Revocation of doctoral degrees at the University of Erlangen during the National Socialist period

Mathematical Collection

Mathematical Collection

Cabinet with mathematical models from Verlagshandlung Schilling (image: Georg Pöhlein)
Cabinet with mathematical models from Verlagshandlung Schilling (image: Georg Pöhlein)

The University’s collection of mathematical models was set up by Felix Klein, who became a professor of mathematics at the University in 1872. It is one of the oldest teaching collections of its kind in Germany.

Mathematical models give abstract ideas a physical form. Most of the models in the collection demonstrate topics in geometry. The majority are made of plaster, while a few are made of wood, cardboard, wire, string and brass. These kinds of models were used most frequently in the last quarter of the 19th century when many university lecturers were attempting to use more practical demonstrations in their teaching. The began to fall out of use in the 1920s. In addition to economic considerations, their decline in relevance was due to the increasingly abstract nature of mathematics and changes in interested and teaching strategies. In many places the models were forgotten,

and Erlangen was no exception. It was not until the two institutes of mathematics moved to the southern campus that some of the forgotten models were rediscovered. The collection still includes around 170 objects which are currently being documented scientifically. It is housed in the Felix Klein building on Causerstraße and is open to the public.

Go to collection website

Address

Department Mathematik
Cauerstraße 11
91058 Erlangen

Contact

Dr. Johannes Hild
johannes.hild@fau.de
+49 9131 8567063

 

 

 

 




  • Contact
  • Press Office
  • Intranet
  • What to do in an emergency
  • Reporting errors
  • Imprint
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Xing
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Up