SCHWARZSCHILD, KARL (1873–1916), German astronomer and mathematician. Born in Frankfurt, Schwarzschild published his first paper, on celestial mechanics, at the age of 15, and worked at
SCHWARZSCHILD, KARL (1873–1916), German astronomer and mathematician. Born in Frankfurt, Schwarzschild published his first paper, on celestial mechanics, at the age of 15, and worked at the Kuffner Observatory, Vienna, from 1897 to 1899. Schwarzschild taught at the University of Goettingen in 1901 and was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1905. In 1909 he was appointed director of the Astrophysikalisches Observatorium in Potsdam, and in 1913, a member of the Berlin Academy and professor at the university. In 1914 he was involved in war work and contracted the rare infectious disease that was to kill him. His achievements were far ahead of his time; he probed deeply into the field of astronomy, celestial mechanics, stellar mot