Page 139 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 13(1) (2025)

Slika/Figure 2

becoming apparent that he was slowly los-
ing close contact with leading mathematicians.
Austria was not the centre of the mathematical 139
Slika/Figure 1 world, as Germany was. Chernivtsi was not ex-
actly the centre of Austria.
dejavnost, saj za delo ni imel dobrih pogojev. In contrast, the less talented Faber, who ini-
Kasneje je zapisal, da je bil glavni problem v njem tially moved around Germany, remained in con-
samem. Gotovo so takrat problemi realnega sve- stant contact with the mathematical world. He
ta pri njem zasenčili matematične probleme, ki only settled in Munich in 1916, during the First
so ga navdihovali. Odrinjenost od središča mate- World War. After a few years, he was the one
matičnega sveta in Plemljeve izvenmatematične who kept Plemelj informed about developments
dejavnosti pa so povzročile negativno povratno in the mathematical world.
zanko. Ampak ugašanje njegove strasti za razi- Plemelj was undoubtedly a mathematical
skovalno matematiko se je začelo že prej, vsaj za genius and largely self-taught. He solved com-
časa balkanskih vojn. plex problems, but only those posed by others.
Plemelj je imel trdne politične nazore, ki He was not a man who opened up new fields,
se niso skladali s politiko Avstro-Ogrske. Oba quite the opposite of his contemporary Hans
s Fabrom sta bila ateista liberalnih nazorov. Ple- Hahn, who worked in several different new Pisma Georga Fabra Josipu Plemlju • Letters from Georg Faber to Josip Plemelj
mljev sovražni odnos do klerikalne stranke se branches of mathematics. There are many paral-
vidi iz čestitke, ki so jo z občnega zbora »Slove- lels between the two. Both obtained their doc-
nije« na Dunaju slovenski študentje – med nji- torates in Vienna under Gustav von Escherich
mi je Plemelj edini doktor – poslali ob zmagi li- and were colleagues in Chernivtsi. Hahn was se-
beralcev in jo je objavil 5. maja 1899 Slovenski riously wounded during the First World War,
narod (slika 1). but this did not deter him from his research in
Plemelj je bil slovanofil oz. panslavist. Med mathematics. Plemelj, on the other hand, did not
balkanskimi vojnami je zagovarjal srbsko stran. see the front. However, he mentioned the First
Zaradi vsega tega je postal politično nezanesljiv, World War as the primary reason for his transi-
po koncu prve svetovne vojne pa jugoslovenar in tion from researcher to teacher, stating that the
unitarist (slika 2). war was far greater than mathematics could ever
Močno si je prizadeval za priključitev slo- be. He argued that his conscription had a strong
venske Koroške Jugoslaviji. V Slovenskem naro- impact on his mathematical activity because he
du je 10. januarja 1919 objavil kratek poziv v boj did not have good working conditions. Later, he
za severno mejo. Čeprav v njem zapiše »Brat- wrote that the main problem lay within himself.
je, posnemajte nas!«; tega ni mislil dobesedno, Certainly, at that time, the problems of the real
saj se sam bojev ni udeležil. 28. junija 1919 je bila world overshadowed the mathematical problems
podpisana Versajska mirovna pogodba, jeseni that inspired him. His isolation from the centre