WWI was horrible for almost all of Europe in most regards. Before the war Germany had one of the largest schools of mathematicians in the world at the time - maybe peaking shortly after David Hilberts collection of challenges for the coming century (in year 1900). For example Goettingen and Koenigsberg (nowadays Kaliningrad) were really inspiring cultural cities at the time which produced a long string of gifted mathematicians: Cantor, Minkowski, Klein to name just a few.

WWI was horrible for almost all of Europe in most regards. Before the war Germany had one of the largest schools of mathematicians in the world at the time - maybe peaking shortly after David Hilbert's collection of challenges for the coming century (in year 1900). For example Goettingen and Koenigsberg (nowadays Kaliningrad) were really inspiring cultural cities at the time which produced a long string of gifted mathematicians: Cantor, Minkowski, Klein to name just a few.