Heinrich Eduard Heine was born on 16 March 1821 in Berlin, as the eighth child of banker Karl Heine and his wife Henriette Märtens. Eduard was initially
home schooled, then studied at the Friedrichswerdersche
Gymnasium and Köllnische Gymnasium in Berlin. In 1838, after graduating from gymnasium, he enrolled at the
University of Berlin, but transferred to the
University of Göttingen to attend the mathematics lectures of
Carl Friedrich Gauss and
Moritz Stern. In 1840 Heine returned to Berlin, where he studied mathematics under
Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, while also attending classes of
Jakob Steiner and
Johann Franz Encke. In 1842 he was awarded a
PhD by the University of Berlin for a thesis on
differential equations submitted with
Enno Dirksen and
Martin Ohm as advisors. Heine dedicated the doctoral thesis to his professor Gustav Dirichlet. Next he went to the
University of Königsberg to participate in the mathematical seminar of
Carl Gustav Jacobi, while also following
mathematical physics classes of
Franz Ernst Neumann. In
Königsberg Heine got in contact with fellow students
Gustav Kirchhoff and
Philipp Ludwig von Seidel. In 1844 Heine went for a teaching position at the
University of Bonn, passing his
habilitation and starting as a
privatdozent. He continued his research in mathematics in Bonn and, in 1848, was promoted to
extraordinary professor. In 1850 he married Sophie Wolff, the daughter of a Berlin merchant; the couple had five children, four daughters and one son. In 1856 Heine moved as a full professor to the
University of Halle, where he remained for the rest of his life. From 1864 to 1865, he served as a rector of the university. In 1875, the University of Göttingen offered Heine a mathematics chair but he decided to reject the offer and remain in Halle. In 1877, at the centenary of Gauss's birth, he was awarded the Gauss Medal for his research. Eduard Heine died on 21 October 1881 in Halle. ==Selected works==