Background
Karl Theodor Reye was born on June 20, 1838, in Ritzebüttel, Germany, the son of Amalia Augustina Beckmann and Georg Wilhelm Reye. Georg Reye had been born in Ritzebüttel and he lived there all his life, being a local businessman.
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Rämistrasse 101 CH-8092 Zürich Switzerland, Zurich
Reye continued his studies at the Polytechnikum in Zürich (this institution was later called the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule or the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology).
Academic School of the Johanneum Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums, Maria-Louisen-Straße 114 Hamburg 22301 Germany
Theodor Reye attended school in Hamburg, being a pupil at the famous Johanneum.
Leibniz University Hannover, Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany
Reye studied mechanical engineering at the Polytechnikum in Hannover.
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Rämistrasse 101 CH-8092 Zürich Switzerland, Zurich
Reye continued his studies at the Polytechnikum in Zürich (this institution was later called the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule or the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology).
Georg-August University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany
Reye received his doctorate at Gottingen in 1861 with a dissertation on gas dynamics.
Karl Theodor Reye was born on June 20, 1838, in Ritzebüttel, Germany, the son of Amalia Augustina Beckmann and Georg Wilhelm Reye. Georg Reye had been born in Ritzebüttel and he lived there all his life, being a local businessman.
Theodor attended school in Hamburg, being a pupil at the famous Johanneum. He then studied mechanical engineering at the Polytechnikum in Hannover before continuing his studies at the Polytechnikum in Zürich (this institution was later called the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule or the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). In Zürich, Reye was taught by Kurt Culmann (1821-1881), who had held the Chair of Engineering Sciences since the Polytechnikum was founded in 1855. He received his doctorate at Gottingen in 1861 with a dissertation on gas dynamics.
After qualifying as a lecturer at Zurich in 1863, he remained there until 1870 as a Privaldozent in mathematical physics. Following a short stay in Aachen came his most productive years 1872-1909, when he was a professor of geometry at the University of Strasbourg. He remained in Strasbourg until after World War I, when he moved to Wurzburg.
In his younger years, Reye published works on physics and meteorology - for example, a book on cyclones (1872). The two-volume first edition of his Geomelrie der Lage appeared in 1866 and 1868. He remained faithful throughout his life to the synthetic geometry presented in this work. His interest in geometry had been stimulated by analytical mechanics, and Culmann, the founder of graphic statics, had drawn his attention to Staudt’s works on geometry. Staudt’s books were considered very difficult to read; Reye’s Geomelrie der Lage, the fifth edition of which appeared in 1923, was easily comprehended.
Reye treated in detail the theory of conics and quadrics and of their linear systems, that of third-degree surfaces and some of the fourth degree, as well as many quadratic congruences and aggregates taken from line geometry.
Reye was the founder of that portion of projective geometry that E. A. Weiss later called point-series geometry. In a series of writings, Reye treated linear manifolds of projective plane pencils and of collinear bundles or spaces. Later these investigations were easily interpreted multidimensionally by means of the geometry of Segre manifolds. Reye refused to speak of true geometry when dealing with spaces of more than three dimensions. He was satisfied to interpret multidimensional relations in P2 and P3, that is, he treated the geometries of lines and spheres in P3 as four-dimensional geometries.
In 1878 Reye published a short work on spherical geometry, the only one of his mathematical writings, besides the Geomelrie der Lage, to appear as a separate publication.
Quotes from others about the person
Karl Geiser writes: "In the autumn of 1918, Reye decided to return to the old Germany, hoping that he would be able to spend the last days of his life in peace and quiet. Unfortunately, the relocation created various difficulties, which, when an order was rescinded by a counter-order, turned into the most repugnant delays and eventually forced the eighty-year-old to carry out the complicated relocation without the help of his son for which he had hoped. At least he could settle down in the comfortable home in Würzburg, which a son-in-law had chosen for him. In May 1919 he was able to celebrate his golden wedding; but the shocks, disappointments and the agitation of the previous months had such a strong after-effect that he fell victim to them a few weeks after the anniversary."
While in Zürich, Reye married Marianne Sattler (1847-1933) in 1868. They had five children: Katharina (born 1869), Franciska (born 1871), Wilhelm (born 1873), Charlotte (born 1875) and Otto (born 1880).