The Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam - Triumph and Tragedies

Reports and Memories 1874 - 1991

This book describes the 110 years of the Astrophysical Observatory in Potsdam (AOP) as the cradle of European astrophysics up to its disappearance in the 1980s.

This book describes the 110 years of the Astrophysical Observatory in Potsdam (AOP) as the cradle of European astrophysics up to its disappearance in the 1980s. The first part consists of reviews on the work of the leading astronomers before the Academy reform, while the following part also contains memories of the author until the end of the Akademie der Wissenschaften and the end of the entire GDR as well as the formation 1991/92 of the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam (AIP) on the grounds of the Sternwarte Babelsberg in the course of the German unification.

The history of astrophysics on Potsdam's Telegraphenberg includes triumph and tragedies. It began with Hermann Vogel's discovery of the spectroscopic binary stars, Spörer's discovery of the Maunder Minimum of solar activity and Hartmann's clever argumentation on the existence of interstellar gas. Schwarzschild wrote from the war front to Einstein that gravitational waves should exist and Grotrian revealed the secret of the red corona line; later the dynamo theory of the origin of cosmic magnetic fields will migrate worldwide from here.

But the Great Refractor turned out to be too large, the hastily erected Einstein Tower also failed to achieve the desired success, Ludendorff drove its multi-talented master mind Freundlich away, and the tower was even planned to be completely removed. Walter Grotrian was not able to start work with his new coronograph, and all the candidates for his succession later declined. The reorganization of the Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin into a socialistic state combine led to isolation and the suppression of the innovation pressure; dubious figures began to torpedo the research through invisible channels.

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