Ce périodique foncièrement international: The birth and youth of Compositio Mathematica

The journal ‘Compositio Mathematica’ was founded by Luitzen E.J. Brouwer to counter his
dismissal from the ‘Mathematische Annalen’ in 1928. In spite of the economic crisis, Brouwer
succeeded in finding a publisher, Noordhoff, an editorial board and subscribers. The founding
took place at the time of the rise of the Third Reich, which caused problems of a political
nature. The German editors followed Ludwig Bieberbach in 1934 when he left the board because
Brouwer refused to dismiss the Jewish editors. After a period of flourishing, the publication
was suspended at the beginning of the occupation of Holland in 1940. The post-war restart
of the journal led to a painful conflict between Brouwer and the publisher, which ended with
Brouwer’s withdrawal from power. After having founded his own journal in the early 1930s, he
lost it again some twenty years later. This article appeared in the September 2006 issue of the
‘Compositio Mathematica’.