tessa 

while visiting Berlin, I decided to visit Alexander Grothendieck's Stolperstein, in front of the house that he and his parents lived in before they had to flee from or were murdered by Nazism.

I sat down for 20 minutes. reminded myself of the basic definition of the Grothendieck construction and proving (though sloppily) that the Grothendieck construction of a 2-functor yields it's (op)lax colimit

there were people coming in and out of the building, there was life. though I wonder if any of them are aware that someone who would become one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century used to live there.

it felt nice to do maths sitting there, as if under the eyes of a kind and watchful advisor

Sep 27 at 3:29pmWeb
Show threadJulesSep 27
@tessaK9 what a nice way to commemorate him 💙
Show threadTagNachtLampeSep 27
@quidcumque @tessaK9
As long as we have them in our Minds, they are living.
🕯️
Show threadJakobOct 1
@tessaK9 Oh, I didn’t know about the Stolperstein! Where in Berlin is it located? By the way, there is a very interesting biography (in German) by Winfried Scharlau about Grothendieck, the first volume of which focuses mainly on his parents Alexander Schapiro and Hanka Grothendieck. Their story is really astonishing. Unfortunately Scharlau died a few years ago and could only finish the first and the third of the planned four volumes.
Show threadtessa Oct 1

@jdw The Stolperstein is at Brunnenstraße 165, about 15 minutes from Hbf with the tram.

those books sound really interesting! I'll look into them when I've got the time