Endomorphism Rings and Direct Sums of Torsion Free Abelian Groups

Properties of abelian groups related to a given finite rank torsion free abelian group A are analyzed in terms of End (A), the endomorphism ring of A. This point of view gives rise to generalizations of some classical theorems by R. Baer and examples of pathological direct sum decompositions of finite rank torsion free abelian groups.