The Korselts are a huge, widespread family that has been resident in the village of
Mittelherwigsdorf near
Zittau in Saxony (nowadays close to the Czech and Polish borders) since the early Middle Ages. Alwin Korselt was born there in 1864. After attending
Gymnasium in Zittau between 1876 and 1885, he studied mathematics and physics in
Leipzig (with one semester in 1886 in
Freiburg im Breisgau) until 1890. After a probationary year as a teacher at Nikolaigymnasium in
Leipzig he taught from 1891 to 1898 at various schools in
Pirna,
Dresden, Keilhau near
Rudolstadt,
Löbau and
Meerane. Frequent changes, often between very different school types, indicate that he found it difficult to gain ground in his profession. His first scientific publication, a voluminous review of
Ernst Schröder's lectures on the
Algebra of Logic, fell into this time (finished 1893). From 1898 till his retirement in 1924 he taught at Realschule
Plauen. He never married, and was well known for his shabby appearance, which was mostly because he found it hard to spend money on anything but books and cigars. In the 1930s he lost a leg through amputation, but remained scientifically active until around 1939. He died in Plauen in 1947 and was interred in Mittelherwigsdorf. ==Research==