THE FUNDAMENTAL GROUP OF THE COMPLEMENT OF A HYPERSURFACE IN $ \mathbf C^n$

Let be a complex algebraic hypersurface in not passing through the point . The generators of the fundamental group and the relations among them are described in terms of the real cone over with apex at . This description is a generalization to the algebraic case of Wirtinger's corepresentation of the fundamental group of a knot in . A new proof of Zariski's conjecture about commutativity of the fundamental group for a projective nodal curve is given in the second part of the paper based on the description of the generators and the relations in the group obtained in the first part.