Christoph Gudermann (March 25, 1798 - September 25, 1852) was born in Vienenburg, Germany. He was the son of a school teacher and became a teacher himself after studying at the University of Gottingen, where his advisor was Karl Friedrich Gauss. He began his teaching career in Kleve and then transferred to a school in Muenster. While there, Karl Weierstrass took Gudermann's course in elliptic functions, the first to be taught in any institute. Weierstrass was greatly influenced by this course, which marked the direction of his own research.
His researches into spherical geometry and special functions focused on particular cases, so that he did not receive the credit given to those who published more general works.
The Gudermannian , or hyperbolic amplitude, is named after him.
Gudermann died in Muenster.