Christian Goldbach’s claim to fame and the reason that he is remembered today is because of the Goldbach Conjecture which is recognized as the unsolved problems within the realm of mathematics.

Christian Goldbach was born in Braddenburg-Prussia. His father was a pastor. Very little is known about his youth or his life prior to his work for the St.Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Goldbach began working there when the academy had just started which was around 1725.

Goldbach later had a famous pupil when he tutored Tsar Peter II which was around 1728. It wasn’t until 1742 that Christian Goldbach entered the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Christian Goldbach had various contributions within his field of mathematics. He met several notorious mathematicians including Gottfried Leibniz and Nicholas Bernoulli. He was known to correspond with these mathematicians and with Leonhard Euler who is the mathematician that Christian chose to discuss the Goldbach’s Conjecture at length.

The relationship that Goldbach had with Euler would prove very important. It was the professional relationship that he had with Leonhard Euler that allowed him to openly discuss many aspects of the Goldbach Conjecture. Christian Goldbach’s work on the Goldbach Conjecture included much of the numbers theory that he discussed with Euler.

In addition to the Goldbach Conjecture, Christian Goldbach researched theorems on perfect powers and he was instrumental in analysis. Christian Goldbach wrote various papers in support of his mathematical theories and findings. However, few found his mathematical papers of significant benefit.

The Euler and Goldbach letters have supported the fact that Goldbach would allow Euler to test his theories and mathematical problems. It isn’t understood why Goldbach didn’t do this himself because he was quite the effective mathematician. It is believed that Christian Goldbach never took mathematics as seriously as his confidant and since math was more of recreational pastime for Goldbach; it is believed that a lot of his work was left incomplete when he died.