Carl Gustav Axel Harnack

He was the son of the theologian Theodosius Harnack[1] and the twin brother of theologian Adolf von Harnack (who long outlived him) - all of them from Dorpat, now known as Tartu, in the Russian Empire.

He published his Ph.D. thesis in 1875 and received the right to teach (venia legendi) at the University of Leipzig the same year.

In 1877 he married Elisabeth von Öttingen, and they moved to Dresden, where he acquired a professorship in the Polytechnikum, which became a technical university in 1890.

Harnack suffered from health problems from 1882 onwards, forcing him to spend long periods in a sanatorium.

He published 29 scientific articles and was a well-known mathematician at the time of his death.