Constance Reid, in Chapter VII of her book Hilbert, tells the story of the writing of the Zahlbericht, as his report entitled Die Theorie der algebra is- chen Zahlkorper has always been known. At its annual meeting in 1893 the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung (the German Mathematical Society) invited Hilbert and Minkowski to prepare a report on the current state of affairs in the theory of numbers, to be completed in two years. The two mathematicians...