Cuno Hoffmeister

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Cuno Hoffmeister

Cuno Hoffmeister (born February 2, 1892 in Sonneberg ; † January 2, 1968 there ) was a German astronomer and geophysicist .

Research area

His main research area were the variable stars , of which Hoffmeister discovered about 10,000 and explored them together with his colleagues; these are almost a quarter of the stars known until 2010 with fluctuations in brightness. For this purpose he founded the mid-1920s the Sonneberg Observatory and developed the long-term research programs " Sonneberger fields plan " (Field patrol) and " Sonneberger sky surveillance " (Sky patrol) to monitor and photographic surveillance and investigation of variable stars, meteors and extragalactic objects. Under his leadership, the Sonneberg observatory became the world's leading institute in this special field of astronomy by the end of the 1960s .

Life

Cuno Hoffmeister was born in Sonneberg in the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen as the son of a toy manufacturer. Even as a child he was fascinated by the stars and when he was given an optical telescope when he was 13 , he began to observe the processes in the night sky more closely. However, he was initially denied high school diploma and a degree in natural sciences, as he was supposed to take over his father's factory with a commercial apprenticeship . Nonetheless, he continued visual observations of the sky as an autodidact and gained attention in 1914 with his own discoveries in the field of variable stars. When doll manufacture came to a standstill during the First World War , he was given the opportunity to work as an assistant at the Dr. Remeis observatory in Bamberg from 1915 to 1918 . In 1920, in addition to his academic work, he made up his Abitur and built an astronomical observation station on the roof of the Sonneberg secondary school. Until the mid-1920s he studied astronomy, mathematics and physics at the University in Jena and started their own photographic images of the sky the project: "Sonneberger fields plan for the study of variable stars of the northern Milky Way " . At the same time, with the support of his hometown, he set up the Sonneberg observatory on the Erbisbühl in the Neufang district , of which he was appointed director in 1926. With the concept of "Sonneberg Sky Monitoring", Hoffmeister followed a suggestion by Paul Guthnick who, at the beginning of the 1920s, brought the establishment of systematic photographic sky monitoring up for discussion at the Berlin-Babelsberg University Observatory. Hoffmeister's work as a scientist found particular recognition in the professional world when his 1922 contribution on the relationships between comets and falling stars was included in the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences . In 1930 and 1933 he undertook two long research trips to the Caribbean Sea . When the city of Sonneberg became insolvent as a result of the global economic crisis , the Sonneberg observatory was leased to the state of Prussia from 1930 for financial reasons . In 1931 the Sonneberg observatory was completely taken over by Prussia and thus affiliated to the Berlin-Babelsberg University Observatory as a branch. Between 1937 and 1960 Hoffmeister spent long periods of time exploring the southern sky in South Africa and Namibia , where the "Cuno Hoffmeister Memorial Observatory" near Windhoek , donated by amateur astronomer Sonja Itting-Enke , commemorates him. In 1936 he became a member of the " German Academy of Natural Scientists " (Leopoldina). Because of the increasing National Socialist influence and the risk of being removed from office, he joined the NSDAP in 1937 . This gave him, among other things, sufficient freedom of action to offer Paul Ahnert protection from further persecution. During the Second World War , Hoffmeister succeeded in continuing the sky observation programs without restrictions. With the support of the Mayor of Sonneberg, Max Zogbaum, he offered the Luftwaffe observatory as a station for weather and sky observation. The observatory became an "Air Force Observation Station" and he himself was appointed the commanding officer. Under his command, all employees of the observatory were conscripted for the Luftwaffe and were considered indispensable during the war, although they could do their work in the astronomical field unchanged. The Friedrich Schiller University of Jena awarded him the title of professor in 1943 . At the end of the war in 1945 Hoffmeister first convinced the American and then the Soviet occupiers that the observatory had actually not taken on any military tasks during the Nazi era. After that he was able to continue the scientific work with his colleagues. The main disruption was that some instruments, including the large astrograph with a 40-centimeter telescope , had to be returned to the Soviet Union as reparations . Due to its successful work, the Sonneberg observatory was taken over as an independent institute by the "German Academy of Sciences in Berlin" (today the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences ) and Cuno Hoffmeister was appointed head, later director of this research facility.

“Sonneberg” has become a household name in astronomy thanks to the photographic monitoring of the sky as part of the Sonneberg Field Plan. Hoffmeister's international scientific recognition was contrasted with increasing disabilities and difficulties at the state-political level, which threatened the existence of the observatory and thus part of his life's work. Since August 13, 1961, the city of Sonneberg was in the GDR border area . The observatory had therefore become almost inaccessible for visitors from outside and could no longer be presented in international research. With his authority as a scientist, Hoffmeister was able to successfully oppose the request to relocate his research institute from Sonneberg to other locations for several years. The conflict escalated on the occasion of an academy reform in the summer of 1967 when the scientific management of the observatory was withdrawn from him. Concerned about the future of his observatory, Cuno Hoffmeister died a month before his 76th birthday in Sonneberg.

Awards and honors

  • Cuno Hoffmeister received the GDR National Prize in 1951 and was appointed to the " Saxon Academy of Sciences " in 1960 .
  • The city of Sonneberg granted Cuno Hoffmeister honorary citizenship in 1964 and named a street after him.
  • Since 1992 the state regular school in the Sonneberg district of Wolkenrasen, which was opened in 1979 as a polytechnic high school , has been called the "Cuno Hoffmeister School".
  • The International Astronomical Union honored Cuno Hoffmeister several times with different names:
    • In 1970 the lunar crater with the coordinates "15 ° 12 'N / 136 ° 54' O" was given the name "Hoffmeister".
    • The asteroid discovered by Hoffmeister (1726), which moves in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter, was given its surname " (1726) Hoffmeister ".
    • The comet C / 1959 01, which MJ Bester discovered on photo plates that Cuno Hoffmeister took in 1959 during his stay at the Boyden Observatory , was named " C / 1959 O1 Bester-Hoffmeister ".
    • In 1991, the near-Earth asteroid 4183 discovered by Hoffmeister on June 5, 1959 at the Boyden Observatory, was given his first name. The celestial body " (4183) Cuno " is an Apollo-type asteroid.

bibliography

  • Brief introduction to the wonders in the starry sky: for night hikers, our youth and our soldiers with regard to the use of binoculars. CC Buchner Verlag , Bamberg 1916.
  • Meteors , their cosmic and terrestrial relationships. Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Leipzig 1937.
  • The variable stars of the northern Milky Way. T.4. (edited by C. Hoffmeister and P. Ahnert ) Publications of the Sonneberg observatory in 1947.
  • On the photometry of the Milky Way . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1947.
  • Meteor streams . Johann Ambrosius Barth Verlag , Leipzig 1948.
  • The stars . Journal for all areas of astronomy. (Editor C. Hoffmeister) JA Barth Verlag, Leipzig / Heidelberg / Berlin 1951 to 1967.
  • The variable stars of the northern Milky Way. T.6. (edited by C. Hoffmeister et al.) Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1951.
  • The variable stars of the northern Milky Way. T.7. (edited by C. Hoffmeister et al.) Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1954.
  • Stars over the steppe. VEB FA Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig 1954.
  • Meteor counts in South West Africa 1937-1938. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1955.
  • Measurements of atmospheric optics in Southwest Africa. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1956 and 1966.
  • Photographic recordings of comets . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin (1956)
  • Processing of the light change of 75 short-period variable stars between 25 ° and 90 ° south declination. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1956.
  • The variable stars of the northern Milky Way. T.9. (edited by C. Hoffmeister, W. Götz, H. Huth) Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1957.
  • About the behavior of three typical and six atypical RW Aurigae stars . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1958.
  • Observations of highly atmospheric illuminations of the night sky in South West Africa 1952-1953. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1958.
  • Observations of the intensified night sky glow in the years 1946-1957. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1959.
  • The variable stars of the northern Milky Way. T.11. (edited by C. Hoffmeister) Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1960.
  • Variable stars in the southern sky. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1963.
  • Astronomical treatises. (together with P. Ahnert) JA Barth Verlag, Leipzig 1965.
  • Analysis of the light curves of four RW Aurigae stars. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1965.
  • The structure of the galaxy. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1966.
  • Variable stars. (together with G. Richter and W. Wenzel ) JA Barth Verlag, Leipzig 1990, ISBN 3-335-00224-5 .

References

Web links

Commons : Cuno Hoffmeister  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harry Waibel : Servants of many masters. Former Nazi functionaries in the Soviet Zone / GDR. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-63542-1 , p. 143.
  2. ↑ Minor Planet Circ. 18307
personal data
SURNAME Hoffmeister, Cuno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German astronomer and geophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Sonneberg , Germany
DATE OF DEATH 2nd January 1968
Place of death Sonneberg , Germany