The Evolution of Descriptive Geometry in Austria

Abstract

In comparison with France, the development of descriptive geometry in Austria started with a delay of approximately 40 years and reached a first culmination in education and research in the era of Emil Müller , during the first decades of the twentieth century. With respect to education, emphasis was mostly placed on the practicability of descriptive geometry methods, and ‘learning by doing’ was seen as an important methodological principle. At some schools and in variable degrees, the syllabus of descriptive geometry was extended by closely related geometric subjects like kinematics, photogrammetry, nomography, or elementary differential geometry.

In view of research, during the nineteenth century, the synthetic method of reasoning dominated; descriptive geometry was seen as a counterpart to analytic geometry. Later this puristic point of view became obsolete. Descriptive geometry found its justification as a method to study three-dimensional geometry through two-dimensional views, thus providing insight into structure and metrical properties of spatial objects, processes, and principles. This is independent of the tools and still valid when computers take over computational and drawing labour.