Fritz Hinderer

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Fritz Hinderer

Fritz Hinderer (born September 24, 1912 in Stuttgart , † August 22, 1991 in Berlin-Steglitz ) was a German astronomer and astrophysicist . His specialty was the study of variable stars .

Life

Fritz Hinderer was born as the son of the Protestant theologian August Hermann Hinderer . After the family moved to Berlin in March 1918, he lived and worked in Berlin and Brandenburg until his death . After graduating from high school, he studied natural sciences with a focus on astronomy at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität .

After his pre-exam he carried out star observations for Toepfer's zone catalog as a volunteer at the Berlin observatory in Babelsberg in 1934 . In the following year he examined the light spectra of the variable star R Coronae Borealis in the constellation Northern Crown as well as of the dwarf novae U Geminorum in the constellation Geminorum and Z Camelopardalis in the constellation Giraffe for his student thesis with the Zeiss astrograph there . At the university in Berlin-Mitte , he then studied astrophysics and quantum mechanics .

His dissertation required time-consuming observations of irregularly variable stars , for which he recorded the course of light from R Coronae Borealis and SS Cygni in the constellation Swan on 850 photo plates for years . He could no longer complete the evaluation because he was obliged to do military service at the beginning of the Second World War . During a working holiday in the summer of 1943 he was able to continue working at the Sonneberg observatory in Thuringia , and after the end of the war he returned unscathed to Berlin, where he was appointed scientific assistant in 1946 with the management of the remains of the Berlin observatory and finally in 1949 with the director of the Astrophysical Institute in Potsdam , Hans Kienle , received his doctorate.

In the following years Fritz Hinderer devoted himself to the reconstruction of a 31-centimeter refractor and a 52-centimeter reflector telescope as well as the improvement of a photometer . In 1953 he became a member of the Astronomical Society . Since he, as a resident of West Berlin, had increasing political problems to work in the German Democratic Republic , he accepted a research grant in 1957 and in 1958 a teaching position at the Free University of Berlin . His habilitation in 1960 was supported by the mathematician Alexander Dinghas . In 1963, Hinderer became professor and head of department for theoretical astronomy and celestial mechanics at the 1st Mathematical Institute of the Free University of Berlin.

Hinderer had contacts with the Wilhelm Foerster Observatory in Berlin-Schöneberg , where he also held internships for his students. The chair of astronomy at the Free University Berlin and the Institute for Astrophysics at the Technical University of Berlin were to Hinderers retirement in 1978 under the direction of Roland Wielen the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics merged at the Technical University. Erwin Sedlmayr was appointed to the professorship that had become vacant after Hinderer's retirement. Hinderer taught for several years for both universities. He was buried in the cemetery of the municipality of Pullach in the Isar valley .

Until the end of his life he looked after the property with the ruins of his parents' house, the Villa Hinderer in Berlin-Steglitz, which was destroyed in World War II , where he also died in August 1991.

Honors

The asteroid (3404) Hinderer , discovered by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth in 1934, was named after Fritz Hinderer in 1992 at the suggestion of Lutz D. Schmadel .

Publications (selection)

  • Spectrophotometric investigations on the variable SS Cygni , Verlag Beltz, Langensalza (1949), from: Astronomische Nachrichten , Volume 277, Number 5/6 and Freie Universität Berlin, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, dissertation from May 27, 1949
  • The new photoelectric measuring device of the Babelsberg observatory , in: Central Institute for Astrophysics. Babelsberg observatory: notifications from the Babelsberg observatory of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin - Babelsberg observatory , number 2, Berlin, pages 31 to 47 (Wissenschaftliche Annalen 1954, issue 8)
  • New German biography
  • Der Veränderliche ε Ursae Minoris , in: Communications from the Babelsberg Observatory of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin , number 3 (1957)
  • Photoelectric investigations on W Ursae Majoris stars , Berlin, Journal des Observateurs. Volume 43, number 11 (1960) and Free University of Berlin, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, habilitation thesis dated Nov. 11, 1960
  • Origin and development of the universe in: Laskowski, Wolfgang: Der Weg zum Menschen. From Urnebel to Homo sapiens , Berlin, de Gruyter, 1968, pages 13–39
  • Hipparch in: Exempla historica, Epochs of World History in Biographies, From the Early High Cultures to Hellenism, Researchers and Scholars, Zurich, Kindler, 1971, 1985, pages 201–232, ISBN 3-596-17005-2

Web links

Commons : Fritz Hinderer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Irmela Bues: Annual reports Astronomischer Institute 1991, Berlin, Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Technical University Journal: Mitteilungen der Astronomische Gesellschaft, Volume 75, Pages 5 to 7, online .
  2. ^ Annual reports of the Astronomical Institute 1991 , Berlin, Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Technical University Journal: Mitteilungen der Astronomische Gesellschaft, Volume 75, page 31
  3. ^ Walter Schwarz: August Hinderer . Life and work . Quell, Stuttgart 1951.
  4. ↑ Simone Höckele-Häfner: August Hinderer . Path and work of a pioneer of Protestant journalism . Christian Journalism, Erlangen 2001, ISBN 3-933992-02-8 .
  5. ^ A b Jens P. Kaufmann: Astronomy at the West Berlin universities , in: The history of astronomy in Berlin , edited by Dieter B. Herrmann and Karl-Friedrich Hoffmann, page 114 ff.
  6. ↑ A war ruin awaits the future , tagesspiegel.de of April 24, 2005, accessed on November 10, 2016
  7. ↑ (3404) Hinderer , in: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg, page 284 (2007), ISBN 978-3-540-29925-7
personal data
SURNAME Hinderer, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German astronomer and astrophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH August 22, 1991
Place of death Berlin-Steglitz