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Northern German Group Theory Colloquium

On this page, you will find a list of past Northern German Group Theory Colloquia (and, with some luck, also information about current and future ones). It was inspired by Markus Stroppel’s list of earlier Reinhold-Baer Colloquia. At the bottom of this page, you’ll also find information about the history of the NDGK.

List of Northern German Group Theory Colloquia

On the History of the Northern German Group Theory Colloquium

Background

According to Bernd Fischer, the NDGK emerged as a sort of offshoot of the Reinhold-Baer Colloquium, or was at least inspired by it. Originally, it was a simple local seminar (without a specific name) in Bielefeld.

The Beginning: The 1990s

The NDGK, in its current form, was created around the time of German reunification in 1989 through an agreement between Bernd Fischer (Bielefeld), Bernd Stellmacher (recently returned from the USA to Kiel), and Gernoth Stroth (then still in Berlin). Some time later (possibly not until 1990/91), Gerhard Pazderski (Rostock) joined in— suddenly no longer separated by a border. Unlike its predecessors, which were more local events in Bielefeld, the “new” NDGK was meant to involve several universities on a rotating basis.

As for the exact beginning of the current NDGK, it now appears clear that the first meeting took place in December 1989. There is now information available for nearly all the subsequent years regarding dates and programs. Exceptions are 1990, 1991, and 1994, for which it is currently not even certain whether an NDGK occurred.

The known dates align well with the statement by Bernd Stellmacher that the NDGK was originally intended to rotate regularly among the four founding locations (Gernoth Stroth moved from Berlin to Halle in 1994). Indeed, a complete such cycle is documented from 1997 to 2000, and the other dates from the 1990s also fit this pattern. Assuming the cycles ran as planned, it is at least possible to speculate about where the NDGK may have been held in 1990, 1991, and 1994—if it happened at all. It would be great if we could fill in these gaps as well.

Initially, there was also some uncertainty regarding the exact founding year of the NDGK. Since the idea came from Bernd Stellmacher, it seemed likely that the first meeting in 1989 was in Kiel. Thanks to Roland Schmidt’s notes, we now know this to be the case.

The NDGK 1989 took place in December; it had to be late in the year since Bernd Stellmacher only arrived in Kiel for the winter semester. He also remembers drinking mulled wine together at the Kiel Christmas market— unlike the European Football Championship final, this experience was less memorable, so he can’t recall the exact year anymore, but 1989 seems very plausible. Roland Schmidt doesn’t recall whether there was mulled wine in 1989, but he clearly remembers that everyone was invited to Stellmacher’s place in the evening.

UPDATE 16.10.2022: Gernoth Stroth sent me a scan of the 1991 program today. It did indeed take place in Berlin as expected. There was a small surprise: it clearly refers to the fourth NDGK. So are the assumptions above incorrect, and did it already start in 1988? Or was there perhaps a year with two colloquia? Or is it simply a mistake in the program (a programmer might say it’s an “off-by-one error”)? We’ll likely never know for sure.

Early 21st Century

In 2001, the rotation among the four NDGK founders was apparently broken for the first time: Gunter Malle and Bettina Eick organized an NDGK in Kassel!

In the following three years, the NDGK returned to three of the traditional locations: Kiel, Halle, and Rostock. Bielefeld, usually second in the sequence, was skipped—probably due to Bernd Fischer’s retirement in the meantime.

Since 2005, the NDGK seems to have definitively moved beyond its original form restricted to four locations (even though from 2008 to 2010 there was again a Kiel-Rostock-Halle cycle). Altogether, it has now taken place at at least ten different locations: Berlin, Bielefeld, Braunschweig, Gießen, Halle, Kaiserslautern, Kassel, Kiel, Magdeburg, and Rostock. And it seems highly likely that this list will continue to grow.

Only one thing appears to have remained constant over the years: the tradition of holding the NDGK from Friday to Saturday.

Sources

The information on this website is based on the following sources:

• Bernd Fischer explained the “background” to me in a conversation.
• Gunter Malle fortunately preserved old programs or invitations from the years 1995, 1996, and 1999 (and also from 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2004/2005), and made them available to me.
• Roland Schmidt also kept old programs and sent me copies for the years 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 2009. He also had handwritten notes from 1989! While the talk titles for 1989 may not be literally accurate, they are certainly thematically accurate.
• Imke Toborg scanned and sent me the 2009 program.
• Websites and programs of past NDGKs, when still available, were used as sources. For example, the homepage for the 1998 NDGK in Bielefeld is still online.
• Anja Steinbach’s homepage documents the dates and locations for 1993 and 1997.
• Since the 1992 NDGK coincided with the final match of the Football European Championship (unusually held on a Friday), that date is firmly etched in Bernd Stellmacher’s memory.
• In October 2022, Gernoth Stroth sent me a scan of the 1991 program.

Additions and corrections are most welcome!

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