Today, Riemann's work, which often incorporates methods of physics, is accepted as some of the most remarkable in the history of all science, not only in mathematics. A number of theorems, methods, concepts, and conjectures carry his name.
Riemann was born September 17, 1826, in Breselenz in the kingdom of Hanover, now Germany. His parents were Friedrich Bernhard Riemann, a Protestant minister who had served in the Napoleonic wars, and Charlotte Ebell, the daughter of a court councillor. He was the second child of six, two boys and four girls. Riemann's family suffered from tuberculosis. His mother and three sisters, and eventually Riemann himself, died of the disease.
Riemann was taught primarily by his father and began making mathematical calculations as early as age six. By age ten he had surpassed his father and also his schoolmaster Shulz, who was employed to tutor him in mathematics. In 1840, at age 14, Riemann went to live with his grandmother in Hanover, where he studied a classical curriculum at the gymnasium, or secondary school. In 1842, his grandmother died and he transferred to the gymnasium at Löneburg, closer to his father's parish at Quickborn. Schmalfuss, the director at Löneburg, noted Riemann's interest in mathematics and lent him several classic books, including Leonhard Euler's works and Adrien-Marie Legendre's Theory of Numbers, which Riemann studied, mastered and returned in a few days.
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