Soldiers Medal
The Bavarian State Ministry of Finance awards the Soldner Medal for special services to surveying in Bavaria for special services to the Bavarian surveying administration. The medal is made of silver and has a diameter of 40 mm. On the front is the geodesic sphere named after the mathematician and astronomer Johann Georg von Soldner , on the back a portrait of Maximilian Joseph Graf von Montgelas . The medal is not an order or badge of honor in the sense of Art. 118 Para. 5 of the Constitution of the Free State of Bavaria .
Front motif: Soldner ball
The motif shows the Soldner sphere at the State Office for Digitization, Broadband and Surveying Bavaria , at the corner of Oettingenstrasse and Liebigstrasse, and symbolizes the relationship between the earth's ellipsoid and the Soldner sphere. The work of art consists of a massive ball made of Nagelfluh, a monolith with a diameter of 2.20 m and honors the work of Johann Georg von Soldner. A bronze ring runs around its equator, showing land surveyors at work. The inscription related to the astronomer and geodesist Soldner reads:
- "Caelum dimensuravi tellusque Bavariae" - I measured the stars and the state of Bavaria .
About Johann Georg von Soldner (1776–1833):
- Astronomer and mathematician
- Scientific head of the young Bavarian land surveying at the beginning of the 19th century
- Member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences
- 1808: Trigonometer at the newly established royal direct tax surveying commission (today's Bavarian State Office for Surveying and Geoinformation)
- 1815: Head of the observatory in Bogenhausen
- Merits:
- Development of simple calculation methods for land surveying on the so-called "Soldner sphere", application of his calculation methods far beyond the German-speaking area, the Soldner coordinate system was the reference system for all border and surveying points in Bavaria well into the second half of the 20th century inside
Backside motif: marble bust of Maximilian Joseph Graf von Montgelas
Artist: Joseph Kirchmayer, 1829
About Maximilian Joseph Graf von Montgelas (1759–1838):
- Father of the modern Bavarian state
- Introduction of an organizational, legal and personnel redesigned administration
- Foreign, Interior and Finance Ministers
- During his tenure: Foundation of the Bavarian Surveying Administration (1801)