“a doctissimo matheseos candidato Weierstrass diligenter et accurate expositam”—The First Publication of Karl Weierstraß, on Analytic Factorials

Following Gert SchubringSchubring, Gert’s findings on the almost failed teacher’s exam of Karl Weierstraß and SchubringSchubring, Gert’s analysis of those events, we study the somewhat bumpy start of the academic career of Weierstaß further on. The main part of the present contribution analyzes mathematical contents of the first publication of Weierstraß, a treatise on analytic factorials which appeared in a school program. In connection with this, we will present clues pointing at a more ambitious aim connected with this research. But there are also indications that Weierstraß stung into a wasps’ nest of personal vanities with it.