Otto Mencke (1644–1707) was a 17th-century German philosopher and scientist. He obtained his doctorate at the University of Leipzig in 1666 with a thesis entitled: Ex Theologia naturali — De Absoluta Dei Simplicitate, Micropolitiam, id est Rempublicam In Microcosmo Conspicuam.
He is notable as being the founder of the very first scientific journal in Germany, established 1682, entitled: Acta Eruditorum. He was a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Leipzig, but is more famous for his scientific genealogy that produced a fine lineage of mathematicians that includes notables such as Carl Friedrich Gauss and David Hilbert.
The Mathematics Genealogy Project database records as many as 69,247 (as of August 2012) mathematicians and other scientists in his lineage. The Philosophy Family Tree records 535 philosophers in his lineage as of May 2010.
Isaac Newton and Mencke were in correspondence in 1693.
Johann Christoph Wichmannshausen (1663–1727) was a 17th-century German philologist. He received his Master’s degree (the highest degree available at that time) from the University of Leipzig in 1685. His dissertation, titled Disputationem Moralem De Divortiis Secundum Jus Naturae (Moral Disputation on Divorce according to the Law of Nature), was written under the direction of his father in law and advisor Otto Mencke. He was from 1692 until the time of his death a professor of Near Eastern languages and university librarian at the University of Wittenberg, and gave courses there in Philosophy and Hebrew.
Among the books he published are De extinctione ordinis Templariorum (The extinction of the Templars), 1687 and many short works on aspects of the Old Testament.
Today, Wichmannshausen is best known as part of a line of scientific genealogy stretching from Mencke to Gauss and to many other mathematicians. As of 2007, the Mathematics Genealogy Project lists 36826 of his academic descendants.
