LEIBNIZ-INSTITUT FÜR ASTROPHYSIK POTSDAM (AIP) - INSTITUT LEIBNIZ D’ASTROPHYSIQUE DE POTSDAM

Astronomy in Potsdam began... in Berlin on 11 July 1700 when Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a renowned scientist, initiated the creation of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, confirmed by Frederick III of Brandenburg. At the time, this decision was largely motivated by the need to accurately calculate the "national calendar". The first observatory was built on Dorotheen Street in Berlin in 1711, and much later, in 1835, a new building, designed by the famous architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, was completed on Linden Street. 11 years later, the Berlin Observatory was known worldwide when Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet Neptune (1846), on the advice and calculations of the French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier! Other important, more confidential discoveries are then made through this observatory. Wilhelm Julius Foerster, a German astronomer and director of the establishment, promoted the two current sites, separated by a few kilometres, the Potsdam Astrophysical Observatory (on the Telegrafenberg) and the relocation of the Berlin Observatory to Babelsberg in 1913.

Of the two proposed visits, we will recommend without hesitation the one of the large telescope which is combined - with delight - with an observation under the prestigious dome of the observatory! This telescope was inaugurated in 1899 by the Emperor himself, and remains to this day the fourth largest astronomical telescope in the world with its impressive 80 cm diameter lens! The length of its tube exceeds 12 m... Needless to say, the dome in charge of protecting it is a beautiful baby weighing about 200 tons for 21 m in diameter. It was damaged during the Second World War and was consequently restored and modernized a few years later, in 1953. As always with these instruments from another era, outdated in terms of optical performance, diameter and site quality, it had to stop being used professionally one day. That was in 1968.... And to the delight of today's enthusiasts who can now contemplate it!