Background
Walther von Dyck was born on December 6, 1856, in Munich, Germany. He was the son of Hermann Dyck, a painter and the director of the Munich Kunstgewerbeschule, and Marie Royko.
Dyck was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Bust of Walther von Dyck at his grave in Munich.
Dyck began his studies at the University of Munich, and received his doctorate there in 1879 for a thesis entitled Über regulär verzweigte Riemannsche Flächen und die durch sie definierten Irrationalitäten. His thesis supervisor was Felix Klein.
Dyck studied at the University of Berlin.
Dyck studied at the University of Leipzig.
Walther von Dyck was born on December 6, 1856, in Munich, Germany. He was the son of Hermann Dyck, a painter and the director of the Munich Kunstgewerbeschule, and Marie Royko.
Dyck began his studies at the University of Munich, and went at the Universities of Berlin and Leipzig. He received his doctorate from Munich in 1879 for a thesis entitled Über regulär verzweigte Riemannsche Flächen und die durch sie definierten Irrationalitäten. His thesis supervisor was Felix Klein.
Dyck qualified as a university lecturer in Leipzig in 1882 and became assistant of F. Klein. In 1884 he became a professor at the Munich Polytechnikum.
Appointed director of the Polytechnikum in 1900, he brought about its rise to university standing as the Technische Hochschule; and as rector (1903-1906, 1919-1925) he carried out a major building expansion. In 1903 he was enlisted, along with Carl von Linde, by Oskar von Miller to aid in the establishment and early development of the Deutsches Museum; he also served as its second chairman from 1906.
As a dedicated member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (and a class secretary in 1924), he prepared the plan and organization of the complete edition of the writings and letters of Kepler, including the posthumous works (for the most part in Pulkovo, near Leningrad). Moreover, as a founder of the Emergency Association of German Science, he concerned himself with assuring financial support for the edition.
Dyck was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and also founded, along with F. Schmitt-Ott, the Emergency Association of German Science.
Linguistically gifted and a warm, kind-hearted man of wide-ranging and liberal interests, including art and music, Dyck was an outstanding scholar and organizer and an enthusiastic and inspiring teacher.
Dyck married Auguste Müller in 1886; they had two daughters.