Paradise: Symbolizing Infinity

"No one shall expel us from the paradise that Cantor created for us." With these words the Göttingen mathematician David Hilbert sought in 1925 to end the long debate about whether set theory could serve as the foundation for mathematics.
The intellectual objections that set theory faced at the time were compounded by religious misgivings and anti-Semitism. This room displays a selection of politically charged documents relating to the speculation about Cantor’s presumed “Jewish origin.”