1939 deaths

Jakob Weiseborn (22 March 1892 in Frankfurt – 20 January 1939 in Flossenbürg) was a German SS-Sturmbannführer (major) and the first commandant of Flossenbürg concentration camp.

Paul Epstein (July 24, 1871 – August 11, 1939) was a German mathematician. He was known for his contributions to number theory, in particular the Epstein zeta function.
Epstein was born and brought up in Frankfurt, where his father was a professor. He received his PhD in 1895 from the University of Strasbourg. From 1895 to 1918 he was a Privatdozent at the University in Strasbourg, which at that time was part of the German Empire. At the end of World War I the city of Strasbourg reverted to France, and Epstein, being German, had to return to Frankfurt.
Epstein was appointed to a non-tenured post at the university and he lectured in Frankfurt from 1919. Later he was appointed professor at Frankfurt. However, after the Nazis came to power in Germany he lost his university position. Because of his age (68) he was unable to find a new position abroad, and finally committed suicide by barbital overdose at Dornbusch, fearing Gestapo torture because he was a Jew.

Ludwig Anton Salomon Fulda (July 7, 1862 – March 7, 1939) was a German playwright and poet, with a strong social commitment. He lived with Moritz Moszkowski's first wife Henriette, née Chaminade, younger sister of pianist and composer Cécile Chaminade.

Paul Séjourné (21 December 1851; Orléans – 19 January 1939; Paris) was a French engineer who specialized in the construction of large bridges from masonry, a domain in which he made some important innovations.

Bernardino Gaetano Scorza (29 September 1876, in Morano Calabro – 6 August 1939, in Rome) was an Italian mathematician working in algebraic geometry, whose work inspired the theory of Scorza varieties.

Otto Ruff (12 December 1871 – 17 September 1939) was a German chemist.

Marie Haps (1879–1939) was a Luxembourg-born Belgian educationalist, the founder of what subsequently became the Institut Libre Marie Haps (now part of the Haute École Léonard de Vinci) and the Marie Haps Faculty of Translation and Interpreting (Saint-Louis University, Brussels).

Félix Legueu (12 August 1863 – 2 October 1939) was a French urologist and gynecologist born in Angers.

Stéphane Leduc (1 November 1853 – 8 March 1939) was a French biologist who sought to contribute to understanding of the chemical and physical mechanisms of life. He was a scientist in the fledgling field of synthetic biology, particularly in relation to diffusion and osmosis. He was a professor at the École de Médecine de Nantes and worked on osmotic crystallisation and the physiological effects of electric current. He was an Officier de la Légion d'honneur.

Louis Fabry was a French astronomer who was born in Marseille, April 20, 1862, and died in Les Lecques, January 26, 1939.