"...There were those who asked Hilbert to submit the proof of Fermat's
Last Theorem himself to win the Wolfskehl Prize, but he laughed it off
by saying that, 'Why should I kill the goose that lays the golden
egg?' The 'golden egg' he had in mind was the interest on the
principal, amounting to 5000 Marks per annum."
Neither Jungk nor Mehra cites a source, but there's a common point of
intersection in their references that seems possible: a 1949 book by
Iris Runge, on the scientific work of Carl Runge (who served on the
Wolfskehl Commission). The full reference from Mehra is
1949 Runge, Iris. Carl Runge und sein wissenschaftliches Werk,
(Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Gottingen,
Math.-phys. Klasse, (3), No. 23) Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Perhaps someone can locate this and see if Iris Runge tells the same
story.
Barry Cipra
cipra@microassist.com
p.s. In digging around the Carleton College library today, I came
across a 1971 Springer-Verlag publication titled "Hilbert Gedenkband,
herausgegeben von K. Reidemeister" which includes a 45 rpm record.
It's a short (4 minute) excerpt from Hilbert's 1930 lecture,
"Naturerkennen und Logik" which ends in the famous "Wir mussen wissen,
wir werden wissen." If this recording isn't already widely available
(i.e., as a sound file on a website), perhaps someone could look into
making it so.