Hans Ludendorff

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Friedrich Wilhelm Hans Ludendorff (born May 26, 1873 in Thunow (Toniewo) near Köslin , † June 26, 1941 in Potsdam ) was an important German astronomer and astrophysicist . He was the younger brother of General Erich Ludendorff .

Life

Hans Ludendorff after studying physics , mathematics and astronomy in Berlin as an assistant at the from 1897 Observatory in Hamburg operates. In 1898 he moved to the Astrophysical Observatory in Potsdam , where he worked as an observer from 1905 and as the main observer from 1915. From 1921 until his retirement in 1938, Ludendorff was director of the observatory. Between 1920 and 1930 he was a member of the board of the Astronomical Society and from 1932 to 1939 he was the chairman. Since 1922 he was a full member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . In 1933 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

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Ludendorff's main focus was on variable stars and spectroscopic binary stars . For example, in 1904 he determined the period of the light curve of the star Almaaz (ε Aurigae) to be 27.1 years.

A first major work, published in 1905, concerned the large star cluster Messier 13 in the constellation Hercules . Ludendorff compared the evaluated photos from 1900 and 1902 with the earlier Potsdam photometric work by Julius Scheiner . The catalog has 1136 entries. In 1921 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

In 1923, at the suggestion of Albert Einstein, who had actually received the invitation, Ludendorff took part in the German excursion to the solar eclipse in Mexico . Since 1930 he occupied himself with the calendar and astronomical knowledge of the Maya .

Ludendorff belonged to Albert Einstein's inner circle of colleagues in Berlin . In 1922 he expressly warned against Einstein opponents from the so-called " German Physics " camp . He promoted the ventures for the empirical verification of the theory of relativity and also published scientific papers on it himself. He did not move from this position after 1933 either. In 1934 he ordered astronomical equipment to test the theory of relativity from Albert Einstein. Little is known about these circumstances to this day, as it was not very opportune to refer to them when obituaries were written in 1941.

Ludendorff was a member of the board of trustees of the Einstein Foundation, co-founder of the Zeitschrift für Astrophysik and editor of the Handbuch der Astrophysik, published between 1928 and 1936 .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Ludendorff: The big star cluster in Hercules Messier 13. Publications of the Astrophysical Observatory in Potsdam. 1905, 15 (6) (No. 50).
  2. ↑ Grundmann, Siegfried: Einstein's file. Einstein's years in Germany from the perspective of German politics. Springer Verlag, Berlin a. a. 1998, p. 173
  3. ↑ Grundmann, Siegfried: Einstein's file. Einstein's years in Germany from the perspective of German politics. Springer Verlag, Berlin a. a. 1998, p. 144

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ludendorff, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ludendorff, Friedrich Wilhelm Hans (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Astronomer and astrophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Thunow
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 1941
Place of death Potsdam