According to Jan Pavlík from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering only a few people know that Brno was the birthplace of a mathematician whose significance for the world of science is comparable to that of Albert Einstein. Yet, Kurt Gödel is presently commemorated in his home town by a small gray plaque at a tram stop on Pekařská Street. Jan Pavlík would like more people to know about Kurt Gödel and his importance and has come up with an educational trail project.
Photo: archive of Jan Pavlík
Jan Pavlík from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering BUT would frequently come across the name of Kurt Gödel during his studies. “But it was as a student of mathematics. It was impossible to avoid him there. He came up with results that shook not just mathematical logic but mathematics as a whole. They also had an impact on physics and even philosophy,” added Pavlík. In his opinion Gödel’s importance for science is comparable to that of Albert Einstein.
Kurt Gödel, who was born in 1906 on Husova Street in the house which is now the seat of Brno City Council, is only recalled by two small plaques: “The first memorial plaque is at a tram stop. It is gray on a gray background which makes it virtually invisible and even people who are searching for it do not have much chance to spot it. It can hardly catch the eye of a passer by. As a result the number of people who would know about Kurt Gödel is not increasing,” says Pavlík. The second memorial plaque can be found on Pellicova Street, to which the Gödel family later moved.
Jan Pavlík has thought of a more attractive way to inform people in Brno about the world-renowned mathematician and his work. “I propose a trail in the park where Kurt Gödel used to play as a child. It would have ten stations in the form of display boards explaining what he did, what made him famous, and how he contributed to science. As he was primarily interested in logic, each board might contain a logical problem that would demonstrate his results,” described Jan Pavlík, who worked on the idea together with the director of the Brno Observatory and Planetarium, Jiří Dušek.
“Some object that Kurt Gödel was not Czech. That is true. He was born at the time of Austria-Hungary and the Gödel family spoke German. But he was born in Brno and completed elementary school there. In addition, as somebody who is so important for the world of science it makes sense to commemorate him with a number of marked trail stops at least,” argued Jan Pavlík.
In the end the forgotten scientist has been brought to the city’s attention, although in a different way. Since August 2019 one of Brno’s streets, specifically the last turning to the right off Pekařská St, before Šilingrovo square, has been named after Kurt Gödel. In the future this act will be followed by a campaign called Kurt na furt (Kurt Forever) with the aim of making this Brno native even more prominent in the public’s eye. As early as 2006, a lecture room bearing Gödel’s name was opened on the occasion of the centenary of his birth at the Faculty of Information Technology of Brno University of Technology.