Theodor Schmidt-Kaler

Theodor Schmidt-Kaler (born June 8, 1930 in Seibelsdorf (now part of Marktrodach ), Upper Franconia ; † June 1, 2017 in Margetshöchheim , Lower Franconia ) was a German astronomer and demography expert.

Life

Theodor Schmidt-Kaler, son from the marriage of the evangelical pastor Ferdinand Schmidt and his wife Emilie geb. von Kaler zu Lanzenheim, married Johanna geb. Countess von Pfeil and Klein-Ellguth ; The physicist Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler comes from the marriage .

Working as an astronomer

Schmidt-Kaler studied mathematics (1954 Dipl.-Math.), Physics and astronomy in Erlangen, Munich and Paris. In 1955 he was with the work on the development of the spiral structure of extragalactic fog due to a Ejektionstheorie in Munich to Dr rer.nat. PhD . From 1956 to 1958 he was a research assistant at the Göttingen observatory and from 1958 to 1963 he was an observer at the Bonn University observatory . He completed his habilitation at the University of Bonn in 1961 with the thesis photometry, luminosity, age and natural colors of galactic supergiants .

1964/65 he was Associate Professor (a. O. Prof.) at the University of Toronto . On October 20, 1965 he was appointed adjunct professor at the University of Bonn. He has received professions from Ohio State University and the University of Texas at Austin .

In 1966 he went to the Ruhr University in Bochum , where he founded the Astronomical Institute with the La Silla Observatory branch . Schmidt-Kaler was full professor and director of the Astronomical Institute in Bochum from July 8, 1966 until his retirement on October 1, 1995.

From 1978 to 1981 he was President of the Astronomical Society . Since 1991 he has been a full member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the European Academy of Sciences .

Schmidt-Kaler, together with Heinz Hermann Koelle (TU Berlin), co- authored the study Long-term development trends in space use (LERN) , Booz, Allen & Hamilton Inc., Düsseldorf, commissioned study for the BMFT, 1990.

His main research interests were: discoloration and interstellar dust , luminosity and distance measurement of novae , supernovae (e.g. SN 1987a ) and supergiants (e.g. in R136 ), spiral structure of the Milky Way , development of telescopes ( e.g. hexapod telescope ) and their Instrumentation. Since 2002 he has dealt with historical and prehistoric astronomy. He has published over 100 specialist articles and scientific papers.

In the International Astronomical Union he was a member of Division IV Stars , Division VI Interstellar Matter , Division VII Galactic System as well as Commission 33 Structure & Dynamics of the Galactic System , Commission 34 Interstellar Matter and Commission 45 Stellar Classification .

Working as a demographer and in politics

Schmidt-Kaler was a member of the CDU . He was first deputy chairman of the CDU district association in Witten. From 1973 to 1976 he was a member of the district council of the Ennepe-Ruhr district and a member of the Ruhr Area Municipal Association (KVR) .

The mathematician Theodor Schmidt-Kaler was also a member of the German Society for Population Science , today's German Society for Demography (DGD), and published numerous articles on the subject, for example in the Journal of Population Studies (Comparative Population Studies) or From Politics and Contemporary History . During the Schmidt (1974–1982) and Kohl (1982–1998) cabinets, he advised ministries several times - and Helmut Kohl in direct discussions - on demographic and pension issues. When he first pointed out in a memorandum to the government and the opposition in 1973 that the missing births also had an impact on pensions and old-age pensions, he encountered great resistance. He was one of the initiators and signatories of the Heidelberg Manifesto of 1981, which argues, among other things, “for an end to mass immigration and for an increase in the German birth rate”. Today, the manifesto is predominantly viewed as racist and formulated a fundamental position of ethnopluralism , according to which the integration of non-European immigrants in Germany is impossible. Schmidt-Kaler reported that Bert Rürup , at that time a consultant in the Federal Chancellery, had "let it through" at a DGD conference: "Those who stick to these - politically undesirable - views will face difficulties in their career."

In response to the Heidelberg Manifesto, he was slapped in the face on July 8, 1982 by the German journalist Barbara Friedrich in the live broadcast "Schlag auf Schlag", hosted by Rudolf Mühlfenzl , on Bavarian Broadcasting . The penalty order of DM 6000 imposed by the Munich District Court was paid for with donations from German astronomers organized by Hermann Ulrich Schmidt (1926–2014).

Schmidt-Kaler was a lecturer at the Society for Free Journalism (GfP), the largest right-wing cultural association in Germany according to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution , and a member of the right-wing extremist association Collegium Humanum, which was banned in 2008 . In 2013, together with Helmut Schrätze, he published an appeal against climate protection and for nuclear pebble-bed reactors in the nationalist magazine “ Voice of the Reich ” under the title Germans don't let yourself be fooled .

Writings (selection of specialist publications)

• On the astronomical interpretation of the Nebra sky disk . In: Annual publication for Central German prehistory. Volume 90/2006 (2007), ISSN  0075-2932 , pp. 235-265.
• The development of calendar thinking in Central Europe from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age . In: Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica . Volume 40 (2008), pp. 11-36.
• A forerunner of counting and abstracting in "homo erectus" - the bone artifacts from Bilzingsleben interpreted as the earliest records of moon observations by mankind . North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts - Natural Sciences and Medicine, Lectures NM 479. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012. Lecture at the 518th meeting on February 4, 2009 in Düsseldorf.
• Holderlin and astronomy . In: Wolfgang R. Dick, Jürgen Hamel (eds.): Contributions to the history of astronomy, Vol. 2 ( Acta Historica Astronomiae, 5). Deutsch, Thun / Frankfurt am Main 1999, pp. 122–127.
• Konradin Ferrari d'Occhieppo , Rolf Krauss, Theodor Schmidt-Kaler: The realms of the ancient Egyptian underworld : mirror image of the sun's trajectories over the course of the year. In: Journal for Egyptian Language and Archeology (ZÄS). Volume 123, pp. 103-110, Leiden University 1996.
• with Wolfhard Schlosser and Eugene F. Milone: Challenges of astronomy. Hands-on experiments for the sky and laboratory. Springer, 1994.
• The Hexapod Telescope: A New Way to Very Large Telescopes. In: Marie-Helene Ulrich (Ed.): Progress in Telescope and Instrumentation Technologies. ESO Conference and Workshop Proceedings, ESO Conference on Progress in Telescope and Instrumentation Technologies, ESO, Garching, 27. – 30. April 1992, European Southern Observatory (ESO), Garching 1992, p. 117.
• The Physical Parameters of the Stars . In: K.-H. Hellwege (Hrsg.): Landolt-Börnstein tables of numerical values ​​and functions from physics, chemistry, astronomy, geophysics and technology . New Series Volume VI, 2b, Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 1982, p. 1 ff.
• Quantitative classification of star spectra using lens prism recordings. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1976.
• Optical observation programs on the galactic structure and dynamics. Working meeting of the German Research Foundation and the Astronomical Society with the participation of the Council of West German Observatories from 19. – 21. 2. 1975. Bochum 1975.
• The dBe stars, a natural spectral group with little luminosity scatter. Bonn, Univ. Sternw., 1964.
• The galactic emission B-stars (spectral classification, photometry, evolution and distribution in the Milky Way plane). Dümmler, Bonn 1964.

Fonts (selection of other publications)

• Politics against the family is politics of doom. Cologne 1987.
• Children instead of contributions. Suggestions for a pension insurance with deductible. In: The political opinion. Volume 25, 1980, ISSN  0032-3446 , pp. 66-76.
• How secure are our pensions? Error in pension legislation. Plea for a reorganization. In: From Politics and Contemporary History. Volume 27, 1979, pp. 3–21, ISSN  0479-611X (Bert Rürup wrote a reply to this.)
• Pension legislation as an instrument for the rational control and feedback of the population process. In: Journal for Population Science. Volume 1, 1978, ISSN  0340-2398 , pp. 75-88.
• Course correction is necessary. Causes and consequences of population development. In: The political opinion. Volume 22, 1977, ISSN  0032-3446 , pp. 29-38.
• Letter from Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker to Theodor Schmidt-Kaler dated May 19, 1986. In: Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: Dear friend! Dear opponent! Letters from five decades. Hanser, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-446-20150-5 , pp. 188-190.

swell

• Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar 1983, Volume 14, p. 3725.
• Who is who? - The German who's who. 2002, p. 1264.
• Genealogical manual of the nobility. 2003, Volume 17, p. 392.

Web links

• Publications by Th. Schmidt-Kaler in the Astrophysics Data System (English)
• Theodor Schmidt-Kaler at the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Prof. Dr. Theodor Schmidt-Kaler: Obituary notice. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . June 6, 2017. Retrieved June 6, 2017 . 
2. ^ CV Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler
3. ↑ Entry Theodor Schmidt-Kaler on iau.org , June 6, 2017 (English)
4. ↑ Ina Braun: Günter Wallraff: Life, Work, Work, Method , p. 101.
5. ↑ http://www.demographie-online.de/
6. ↑ http://www.bib-demografie.de/nn_750132/DE/Publikationen/Zeitschrift/zeitschrift__node.html?__nnn=true  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Personal communication from Theodor Schmidt-Kaler to Christoph Demmer .
8. ↑ http://www.jf-archiv.de/archiv04/504yy09.htm
9. ↑ Deutschlandfunk, broadcast "Research Current", article 'Sternzeit', Nov. 7, 2018 (accessed on October 8, 2019)
10. ↑ Deutschlandfunk, broadcast "Research Current", article 'Sternzeit', Sept. 29, 2019 (accessed on October 8, 2019)
11. ^ Voice of the Reich, Volume 2 (2013), p. 17.
12. ↑ http://gso.gbv.de/DB=2.1/SET=2/TTL=17/PRS=HOL/SHW?FRST=17&HILN=26#26