Cultivating the Herb Garden of Scandinavian Mathematics: The Congresses of Scandinavian Mathematicians, 1909-1925

Abstract

As a reaction to the changed political landscape in Scandinavia following the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905, the prominent Swedish mathematician Gösta MittagLeffler extended 'a brotherly hand,' calling for Scandinavian colleagues to meet for a congress of mathematicians in Stockholm in 1909. This event became the first in a series of biannual meetings which proved to be an important institution for Scandinavian mathematics. During the first decades after 1909, the congresses would form and consolidate themselves through the construction of a new Scandinavian identity for mathematicians which developed alongside and in relation to both international and national contexts and developments. In this paper, we shall demonstrate that these meetings served a complex set of agendas at the individual, national, and international level. In particular, they reflect a changing conception of cooperation in science for mutual cultural gain combined with a flexible institutionalisation that allowed the Scandinavian mathematicians to use the congresses for various diplomatic ambitions. We base our analyses of the Scandinavian Congresses of Mathematics on the notion of a shared 'conational' identity developed adjacent to national identities. We then analyse the formation, consolidation, delineation, and reflections of this institution in order to demonstrate how the efforts to unite Scandinavian mathematicians were contingent on and influenced by simultaneous currents of internationalisation and shared history, culture, and language in the Scandinavian region.

A richer gathering: On the history of the Nordic Congress of Mathematicians

“…He had a vast network of scientific correspondents and worked actively not only to shape the development of mathematics in his own country but also to shift the image of Sweden from that of a peripheral player to one that was accepted as serious and important among the major mathematical powers. The SCM was also relevant in connection with these latter aims [16,17].…”

“…Costs should be kept low, and the customary festivities reduced to a minimum.2 Beyond this, Mittag-Leffler had a vision for the SCM that harkened back to the cultural and political currents of "Scandinavianism" embraced by many Danish and Swedish intellectuals in the mid-19th century, in part a reaction to perceived pressures from powerful nations to the east, south, and west. He advocated a collaboration between Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden in matters of defense, diplomacy, and economic policy [16] and hoped that through mathematical exchange, the SCM could spark a new sort of Scandinavianism [17], one that might strengthen the four nations culturally. As he phrased it at the 1909 meeting, In the herb garden of mathematical knowledge grow plants of a most varied kind, and it is not completely the same type of harvest that the [different] colleges of the north usually reap.…”

“…How much richer our gathering therefore becomes when it includes mathematicians from all the north. [17] Moreover, according to the report of Danish participant Carl Christian Hansen (1876-1935) published in the Danish newspaper Politiken, Mittag-Leffler viewed such collaboration as protective. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, in particular, had a common historical development and cultural and linguistic connections.…”

“…Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, in particular, had a common historical development and cultural and linguistic connections. As he argued at the final banquet, "individually we are too small to benefit from standing on our own and our culture is too precious not to be carefully guarded" [17].…”

“…Yet the NCM was the product of a specific time and place. In the political tension following the secession of Norway from Sweden in 1905, the Scandinavian Congress of Mathematicians (SCM), as the NCM was formerly known, was originally framed as the extension of a "brotherly hand", one intended to help shape a shared Scandinavian identity for mutual cultural benefit through fruitful scientific cooperation [17].…”