Nikolaus Richter

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Nikolaus B. Richter (born February 5, 1910 in Neustädtel ; † November 26, 1980 in Potsdam ) was one of the most prominent astronomers in the GDR .

Live and act

Richter was born as the son of the lawyer Benjamin Richter (1866–1936) in Neustädtel in the Saxon Ore Mountains . His mother Clara Richter b. von Broke (1873–1955) was one of the Froebel teachers and founded the first carving courses in the Ore Mountains. His father was mayor of Neustädtel from around 1902 to 1930. In his honor, the Dr.-Richter-Strasse in Neustädtel was named in 1936 .

After attending the Staatsrealgymnasium in Schneeberg, Richter wanted to become an astronomer and meteorologist. As a teenager he had installed a private observatory in the town hall tower in Neustädtel. Through the acquaintance of the director of the Sonneberg observatory Cuno Hoffmeister he took a solid education as an astronomer. Richter studied mathematics, astronomy, physics and meteorology at the Universities of Göttingen and Leipzig . In 1935 he received his doctorate from the astronomer Josef Hopmann in Leipzig . During his student days, he took part in an excursion to the Gulf of Mexico and South America, where he was particularly concerned with researching zodiacal light .

From 1935 to 1945 he was a research assistant to Paul Guthnick at the observatory in Berlin-Neubabelsberg. He was not called up for military service. During this time he undertook a scientific expedition to the Sahara in 1942, starting from Tripoli to the still largely unexplored area between Fessan and Kufra. His report on this was published in 1952 by Brockhaus in Leipzig under the title “Unforgettable Sahara”.

In 1946, Richter von Hoffmeister was appointed to the Sonneberg observatory, where he was appointed observer in 1949 and scientific assistant and head of department in 1953. In 1960 he moved to Tautenburg, where he was appointed director of the new Karl Schwarzschild Observatory (today: Thuringian State Observatory ). Freimut Börngen was one of his employees .

On behalf of DEFA , he and his wife created the documentary Unknown Sahara . The film reports on the all-German expedition in 1955 that took him to the Sahara on behalf of the Society for Geography in Berlin, together with his wife and the West German scientists Wolfgang Meckelein and Eberhard Jany .

Honors

Freimut Börngen named the approximately 6 km large main belt asteroid (3338) Richter, discovered on October 28, 1973, after him.

Richter was elected to the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 1972.

Works

  • Unforgettable Sahara . As a painter u. Scholar through unexplored desert. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1952 (186 pages).
  • On the way to the black oasis . Brockhaus, Leipzig 1958 (355 pages).

literature

  • Werner Unger : Sons and citizens of our city: Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Richter . In: Schneeberger Heimatbüchlein , 14, 1976, pp. 17-18.
  • Matthias Richter: Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Benjamin Richter (February 5, 1910– November 26, 1980) , Friends of the Schneeberg City Archives ( PDF )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Unger : Sons and Citizens of our City: Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Richter . In: Schneeberger Heimatbüchlein , 14, 1976, p. 17
  2. ^ Lutz D. Schmadel : Dictionary of minor planet names . 3rd ed. Springer, 1997, p. 437.
  3. ↑ Member entry by Nikolaus Richter at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on May 26, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Judge, Nicholas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Judge, Nikolaus B.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Neustädtel
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1980
Place of death Potsdam