Hermann Weyl completed his secondary education in Altona in 1904 at the age of eighteen. He chose to attend the University of Göttingen mainly because the director of his high school was Hilbert's cousin and he had provided Weyl with a letter of recommendation. Weyl was so impressed with Hilbert that he resolved to study everything Hilbert had written. The mathematical world of Göttingen was, at that time, extremely rich and varied and was governed (Weyl 1944b, p. 122) by Hilbert, Minkowski and Felix Klein.