Toeplitz came from a family of mathematicians, with both his father and grandfather teaching the subject at high school. He studied in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) and Berlin, completed his postdoctoral qualification (Habilitation) in Göttingen under David Hilbert and was made a full professor in Kiel in 1920. He took up a post at the University of Bonn in 1928.
Even during his time in Kiel, he held regular seminars on the history of mathematics for trainee teachers and as part of their further training. When in Bonn, he persuaded the mathematical historian Erich Bessel-Hagen to join him, thus making the University’s Mathematical Institute the first of its kind in Germany to have a department dedicated to the history of mathematics with its own well-stocked library. Here too, seminars on the history of mathematics were a regular occurrence.
Toeplitz co-founded the journal Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik (Sources and Studies on the History of Mathematics). He also set up another journal together with Heinrich Behnke from Münster, this time entitled Semesterberichte zur Pflege des Zusammenhangs von Universität und Schule (Semester Reports on Cultivating the Links Between University and School). It remains in print to this day. When the Nuremberg Laws were introduced in 1935, Toeplitz, a Jew, was fired by the National Socialist authorities. Although he managed to emigrate to Palestine in 1939, he died there the following year. Bessel-Hagen continued his legacy as best he could, but he died too in 1945.
Bonn as a major center of research into the history of mathematics
After the Second World War, the Mathematical Institute welcomed a steady stream of professors who were interested in the history of mathematics and promoted work on the topic. For the past 30 or so years, the Institute has once again been one of the most important places for research into the history of mathematics, producing the internationally acclaimed Hausdorff Edition (10 volumes including an extensive biography of Felix Hausdorff). The most notable University of Bonn professors in this regard include Egbert Brieskorn (1936–2013), Friedrich Hirzebruch (1927–2012) and Walter Purkert.