Weber was born in 1906 in Oberstein, the son of a merchant. In 1924, he graduated from the Abitur. He studied mathematics in Hamburg and at the University of Göttingen and in 1928 he handed over the Lehramt staatsexamen in Mathematics, Physics, Biology. Weber took his examination for promotion of Dr. phil. in Göttingen with Emmy Noether,, with a dissertation titled: Ideal theoretical interpretation of the representability of any natural numbers by square forms, Noether had not been authorized to supervise dissertations on her own. In Göttingen, his postdoctoral scholarship was co-sponsored by Edmund Landau in 1931, with whom he had been an assistant since 1928 and whom he represented in 1933 after his leave of absence. Landau and Noether had judged his dissertation to be excellent, but Weber was only a mediocre mathematician, and his usefulness for Landau consisted chiefly of his abilities in accurate proofreading, to which Landau devoted much attention. In 1933, Oswald Teichmüller convinced Weber to convert to Nazism. He was involved in the publication of the Deutsche Mathematik and published a book on the Pell equation. From 1946, Weber worked as a publishing director in Hamburg and from 1951 at the private school "Institut Dr. Brechtefeld" in Hamburg as a teacher. He left a detailed manuscript about his discussion with Hasse, which serves as an important source for the events at that time in Göttingen.
Nazi Biography
Weber was a member of the SA, but only became a Nazi on 1 May 1933 the Nazi party, although he had previously sympathized with the Nazis. In November 1933, he signed the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State.
Removal of Jewish mathematicians
Weber was involved in the removal of the mathematician Edmund Landau on 2 November 1933 from the mathematics faculty at the University of Göttingen. Richard Courant was also forced out of Göttingen in May 1933. As the leader of a group of pro-Nazi students Weber, along with the Nazi mathematician Oswald Teichmüller, along with the SS, organized a group that commanded a boycott of the Jewish Edmund Landau's lectures. In a letter that Richard Courant wrote to Abraham Flexner, he stated: Landau received a delegate from the students, who informed him that Aryan students want Aryan mathematics...and requested him from giving lectures. The speaker for the students was very young, scientifically gifted man, but completely muddled and notorious.'' That person was Oswald Teichmüller. Landau would leave the university soon after.
Mathematical Institute
On February 13, 1934, the university Dekan asked Weber, who was acting director of the mathematical institute at Göttingen, for recommendations on who should replace Hermann Weyl as new operational director. Several days later Weber recommended, as the best mathematician, the algebraist Helmut Hasse, then working at the University of Marburg, but preferred the Nazi Udo Wegner. In 1940, Weber would write: The decision was made by the Nazi Theodor Vahlen, who appointed Helmut Hasse in April 1934. The Nazi were unsure if Hasse was fully committed to National Socialist policies, and tried to appoint someone to a second chair at Göttingen who was a firm Nazi supporter. Udo Wegner was a strong candidate, but the probability theorist Erhard Tornier and ardent Nazi eventually gained the second chair. Later Weber and other convinced national socialists, met in Göttingen with the designated new head of the Göttingen mathematical institute Helmut Hasse, who also sympathized with the Nazis, to question him about his ancestry, where Weber and his cronies did not consider him reliable for party politics, due to him having a Jewish grandmother. Although Hasse was acceptable to the Nazis, he was not acceptable to Weber, who refused to hand over the keys to the Institute. Proceedings were started against Weber with Weber sending a 400+ page document to Dr Mentzel of the Reich Ministry for Science Education and Adult Education. War work interrupted the proceedings. In 1945, Weber was dismissed due to his Nazi involvement.
War work
In the World War II, he worked with Oswald Teichmüller in the Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht in section IVc under Wolfgang Franz which was scientific decoding of enemy crypts, the development of code-breaking methods and working on re-cyphering systems not solved by practical decoding. The agency was managed by Erich Hüttenhain. He successfully deciphered a cypher of the Japanese diplomatic service. He also worked on cryptanalytic theory.
