2008 is "Mathematics Year" in Germany

March 27, 2008

We have “Mathematics Awareness Month” (April, 2008). In Germany, 2008 has been officially declared “Mathematics Year.” Its motto is “Mathematics. Everything that counts!”

Since 2000, which was the “Year of Physics” in Germany, the German Federal Ministry of Science and Education has dedicated each year to a particular area of science. This year, posters and activities in Germany's schools stress the idea “You’re better at math than you think!”

Joining the Ministry in the year's promotional efforts in mathematics is the Science in Dialogue Agency, which represents the German Research Foundation and major research organizations such as the Max Planck Society, the Deutsche Telekom Foundation, and the German Mathematical Society.

According to Günter M. Ziegler, the Society's president, many are "working hard to get hundreds of people from all over Germany involved, inviting people to become 'math makers' for the year. This is the only way to have activities all over the country."

In addition, Ziegler emphasized the point that "people are important." A subject is “abstract” to the press as long as they don’t have people to talk to, to write about. For all the press materials, he said, "we are presenting and portraying mathematicians 'to talk to."

"The hope is that when the year is over," he said, lessons learned by Germany's students will include the idea that mathematics is high-tech, it is art, it is puzzles, etc.  “There is lots to discover," he noted. "People who think they don’t like math haven’t seen much of it."

Source: Notices of the AMS (March, 2008).