Walter Hofmann (geodesist)

Walter Hofmann (born December 15, 1912 in Wiesbaden ; † September 7, 1995 in Bonn ) was a German geodesist and professor at the University of Bonn . As a university lecturer, he made a special contribution to engineering geodesy and the satellite geodesy that is currently being developed .

Hofmann received his Abitur in 1932 at the Realgymnasium Wiesbaden, then studied geodesy , worked as a government surveyor and habilitated in 1952 as a private lecturer in Bonn. In 1954 the TH Darmstadt appointed him a full professor and the DGK a member. In 1958 he moved to the University of Bonn as a geodesy professor, where he worked until his retirement in 1978. Already at the beginning of space travel he dealt with satellite geodesy and in 1960 wrote the standard work Cosmic Geodesy with Alfred Berroth .

In Bonn , Hofmann and Helmut Wolf succeeded in setting up a photographic satellite station in order to take part in the European triangulation project WEST . The station was initially equipped with a self-made satellite camera and a precise time system, then around 1970 with a Zeiss BMK 75 . Their observers included u. a. Günter Seeber , who was later appointed to the University of Hanover.

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• Jörg Albertz et al .: Festschrift On the pulse of space and time. 50 years of the German Geodetic Commission . DGK series E, issue 26, Munich 2002, p. 255.
• Who is who? The German who's who , Volume 42: Hofmann Walter, 1912–1995.