Karl Rohn attended the Polytechnikum at Darmstadt. He studied mathematics and engineering at the University of Leipzig, then at the University of Munich where he was awarded a doctorate in 1878.
Rohn's dissertation was influenced by Klein and involved the relationship of Kummer's surface to hyperelliptic functions.
In 1884 Rohn was appointed assistant professor at Leipzig, then in 1887 he became a full professor at Technische Hochschule in Dresden where he held the chair of descriptive geometry. From 1904 until his death Rohn held the chair of mathematics at the University of Leipzig.
He made major contributions to algebraic geometry. He became an expert in this field with an outstanding ability to see geometric facts in algebraic equations.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
December 1996