Biography
Cordula Tollmien
Cordula Tollmien (born November 18, 1951 in Göttingen) is a German historian and children's book author.
Cordula Tollmien was born in Göttingen in 1951 as the daughter of Walter Tollmien. From 1962 to 1970, she attended the classical branch of the Max Planck Grammar School there. One of her teachers was Wolfgang Natonek. She passed her Abitur with distinction in 1970.
From 1970 to 76, she studied mathematics and physics at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen under Egbert Brieskorn and Martin Kneser, among others. In 1974/75 she was a member of staff in the research project of the DFG's special research program "University Didactics" at the IV Institute of Physics at the University of Göttingen on the evaluation of learning processes and completed her studies in December 1975 with the development of a teaching unit on absorption spectral analysis (including the construction of a single-beam spectrophotometer and an educational film on the subject) in the context of this project with the state examination.
From 1976 to June 1977, she trained as a teacher at public schools (secondary levels I and II) at the Scientific Institute for School Practice in Bremen, Bremerhaven department, and then worked again as a research assistant at the IV Institute of Physics at the University of Göttingen until the end of 1979, supervising state examination theses and evaluating empirical didactic studies as part of the DFG project mentioned above.
The first half of the 1980s saw her first attempts at writing (publications in literary journals and anthologies) and she also produced her first historical works. This occupation gave rise to a desire for a scientific foundation for her historical interests, and Tollmien therefore began studying Medieval and Modern History at the University of Göttingen in 1986 (with the minor subjects of Philosophy and Education), where she was particularly influenced by the courses taught by Helga Grebing, Ernst Schubert and Rudolf von Thadden.During her studies, Tollmien was supported by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, as she had been during her first degree in mathematics and physics.
Tollmien's first children's book, La gatta heißt Katze, was published at the same time as she began studying history and was awarded the Peter-Härtling Prize in 1986.
Since then, she has published numerous books for children and young people.Her biography Fürstin der Wissenschaft (Princess of Science) about the mathematician Sofja Kowalewskaja was shortlisted for the German Youth Book Prize in 1995.
In 1991, Tollmien interrupted her studies to work for two years as a research editor at the Hamburg Foundation for Social History (now based in Bremen), where she took on editorial responsibility for the journal 1999 - Zeitschrift für Sozialgeschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts (now Sozial.Geschichte - Zeitschrift für historische Analyse des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts), published by the foundation. Since 1987, Tollmien has published numerous historical works, including on the history of German aviation research, the involvement of Göttingen University in the propaganda battle of the First World War and the history of Göttingen's Jews, as well as biographies of the mathematicians Emmy Noether and Sofja Kovalevskaya and the chemists Julia Lermontova and Marie Curie.
From 1994, Tollmien conducted research for a three-volume city history commissioned by the City of Göttingen on the subject of National Socialism in Göttingen. The result of this work was accepted as a dissertation by the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Göttingen and Tollmien was awarded a doctorate summa cum laude in Medieval and Modern History in 1998.In 2000, Tollmien was commissioned by the City of Göttingen to research the "Working and living conditions of foreign forced laborers employed in Göttingen between 1939 and 1945".The results of her research are published online as the website "Forced Labor in Göttingen".
Since 2021, her Emmy Noether biography, which is scheduled to appear in 15 volumes, has been published at irregular intervals under the series title "Die Lebens- und Familiengeschichte der Mathematikerin Emmy Noether in Einzelaspekten", which is based on her 30-year study of this important mathematician.The focus of her research interest is on the non-mathematical aspects of Emmy Noether's life.
She also runs a homepage on Emmy Noether.
Tollmien lives as a freelance writer and historian in Hann. Münden. She is a member of the Göttinger Geschichtswerkstatt, the Rose Ausländer Gesellschaft and the International Rosenzweig Society.
Cordula Tollmien was born in Göttingen in 1951 as the daughter of Walter Tollmien. From 1962 to 1970, she attended the classical branch of the Max Planck Grammar School there. One of her teachers was Wolfgang Natonek. She passed her Abitur with distinction in 1970.
From 1970 to 76, she studied mathematics and physics at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen under Egbert Brieskorn and Martin Kneser, among others. In 1974/75 she was a member of staff in the research project of the DFG's special research program "University Didactics" at the IV Institute of Physics at the University of Göttingen on the evaluation of learning processes and completed her studies in December 1975 with the development of a teaching unit on absorption spectral analysis (including the construction of a single-beam spectrophotometer and an educational film on the subject) in the context of this project with the state examination.
From 1976 to June 1977, she trained as a teacher at public schools (secondary levels I and II) at the Scientific Institute for School Practice in Bremen, Bremerhaven department, and then worked again as a research assistant at the IV Institute of Physics at the University of Göttingen until the end of 1979, supervising state examination theses and evaluating empirical didactic studies as part of the DFG project mentioned above.
The first half of the 1980s saw her first attempts at writing (publications in literary journals and anthologies) and she also produced her first historical works. This occupation gave rise to a desire for a scientific foundation for her historical interests, and Tollmien therefore began studying Medieval and Modern History at the University of Göttingen in 1986 (with the minor subjects of Philosophy and Education), where she was particularly influenced by the courses taught by Helga Grebing, Ernst Schubert and Rudolf von Thadden.During her studies, Tollmien was supported by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, as she had been during her first degree in mathematics and physics.
Tollmien's first children's book, La gatta heißt Katze, was published at the same time as she began studying history and was awarded the Peter-Härtling Prize in 1986.
Since then, she has published numerous books for children and young people.Her biography Fürstin der Wissenschaft (Princess of Science) about the mathematician Sofja Kowalewskaja was shortlisted for the German Youth Book Prize in 1995.
In 1991, Tollmien interrupted her studies to work for two years as a research editor at the Hamburg Foundation for Social History (now based in Bremen), where she took on editorial responsibility for the journal 1999 - Zeitschrift für Sozialgeschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts (now Sozial.Geschichte - Zeitschrift für historische Analyse des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts), published by the foundation. Since 1987, Tollmien has published numerous historical works, including on the history of German aviation research, the involvement of Göttingen University in the propaganda battle of the First World War and the history of Göttingen's Jews, as well as biographies of the mathematicians Emmy Noether and Sofja Kovalevskaya and the chemists Julia Lermontova and Marie Curie.
From 1994, Tollmien conducted research for a three-volume city history commissioned by the City of Göttingen on the subject of National Socialism in Göttingen. The result of this work was accepted as a dissertation by the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Göttingen and Tollmien was awarded a doctorate summa cum laude in Medieval and Modern History in 1998.In 2000, Tollmien was commissioned by the City of Göttingen to research the "Working and living conditions of foreign forced laborers employed in Göttingen between 1939 and 1945".The results of her research are published online as the website "Forced Labor in Göttingen".
Since 2021, her Emmy Noether biography, which is scheduled to appear in 15 volumes, has been published at irregular intervals under the series title "Die Lebens- und Familiengeschichte der Mathematikerin Emmy Noether in Einzelaspekten", which is based on her 30-year study of this important mathematician.The focus of her research interest is on the non-mathematical aspects of Emmy Noether's life.
She also runs a homepage on Emmy Noether.
Tollmien lives as a freelance writer and historian in Hann. Münden. She is a member of the Göttinger Geschichtswerkstatt, the Rose Ausländer Gesellschaft and the International Rosenzweig Society.