The aim of my project is to reveal a small part of the still unknown history of the development of the school. The teaching of mathematics forms a very important part of the education of future engineers, which was true in the past as well as it is now. The content and forms of instruction of this subject develop not only in connection with the development of mathematics as a science, but also with regard to the needs of the specific branches. One of the main tasks of this project is therefore to track down this development during the existence of the school. In the century of its existence, the school underwent the change from a vocational technical school, which had to substitute for the underdeveloped secondary technical education, into a real technical university. This development must have influenced the instruction of the individual subjects. The school also had to reflect the changes in the system of secondary education. The comparisons of the instruction of mathematics at the German Technical University with the instruction at other technical universities, first in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and later in the independent Czechoslovak Republic, will also be important. This topic is not even touched in the above mentioned works (as in many other similar works about other schools). The comparisons both with bigger schools (Prague, Vienna) and with those of similar size as the German Technical University in Brno (Graz) should be interesting. The second part of the project, which is of the same importance as the first one, consists of making a record of the staff at the mathematics departments of the Brno German Technical University. A glance at the list of professors as well as the one of private associate professors in Haussner's work shows that there were many renowned mathematicians teaching at this school, especially up to the year 1918. These, in most cases young, mathematicians became professors of important universities in Austria and Germany. Some of them are e.g. Emanuel Czuber, Ernst Fischer, Johann Radon, Richard von Mises, and Heinrich Tietze. Even though we know the names, we know nothing about the achievements of these mathematicians during their stay in Brno. Some well-known mathematicians also tried to become teachers or professors at the German Technical University in Brno: for example, Matyáš Lerch, Hans Hahn, and Emil Artin. Apart from these well-known mathematicians, there were also others, about whom we know almost nothing. It is a frequent case that we know only the name, some basic facts, and little or nothing else. Whereas with the well-known mathematicians, the aim will be to map their actions at the time they taught at the German technical University, with the lesser-known ones it will be necessary to find out the basic biographical data - about their life, study, teaching, and scientific activities and achievements.
The main output of the project is the monograph Mathematics
at the German Technical University in Brno, issued as the 21st volume
of the edition History of Mathematics of Prometheus publishing house. Besides
the aspects of teaching mathematics, the book also brings basic information
on the historical development of the German Technical University in Brno
and in many cases contains information that had not been published before.
In the years 2000-2002, the results of the research were presented in nine
lectures held at Czech as well as international conferences devoted to
the history of mathematics, science, and technology and also in five articles.