Abstract

There are only five letters and two postcards which were written by Emmy Noether to P.S. Alexandroff that have been preserved. These will be edited in this paper. More than any other source, these letters and postcards give an insight into Emmy Noether's privacy, and her sympathy for the problems of her pen pal and colleagues. They illuminate her judgement of different colleagues, students, «mathematical grandchildren» and their papers. They also inform about relationships within the mathematicians' community and the working atmosphere in Goettingen and the US after 1933. The author thanks Prof. Dr. Walter Purkert, Bonn, for the reference to the writings of Emmy Noether, and Prof. Dr. Albert Shiryaev, Moscow, for the kind publication permission.