Erich Hecke (September 20, 1887 – February 13, 1947) was a German mathematician. He devoted most of his research to the theory of modular forms, creating the general theory of cusp forms (holomorphic, for GL(2)), as it is now understood in the classical setting.

His early work included establishing the functional equation for the Dedekind zeta function, with a proof based on theta functions. The method extended to the L-functions associated to a class of characters now known as Hecke characters or idele class characters : such L-functions are now known as Hecke L-functions .

He was born in Buk, Posen Germany (now Poznan Poland), and died in Copenhagen, Denmark.

See also: Hecke operator, Tate's thesis .

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