The Berlin Observatory has its origins in 1700 when Gottfried Leibniz initiated the Brandenburgische Society which would later become Prussian Academy of Sciences. Although the original observatory was built in the outskits of the city, over the course of time the city expanded such that after two centuries the observatory was in the middle of other settlements which made making observations very difficult and a proposal to move the observatory was made. The observatory was moved to Babelsberg in 1913. Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (also Leibnitz) (Leipzig July 1 (June 21 O.S.), 1646 – November 14, 1716 in Hannover) was a philosopher, scientist, mathematician, diplomat, librarian, and lawyer of Sorb descent. ...
Wilhelm Julius Förster (December 16, 1832 – January 18, 1921) was a German astronomer, father of the pacifist and ethicist Friedrich Wilhelm Förster. ... Karl Hermann Struve (October 3, 1854 – August 12, 1920) was a German astronomer born in Russia, part of the famous Struve family of astronomers. ...
Sources
A brief History of Astronomy in Berlin and the Wilhelm-Foerster-Observatory [1]
The discoveries of the canal rays by Eugen Goldstein in 1886 in the physical laboratory of the observatory and of the variation in the altitude of the Earth's pole by Karl Friedrich Küstnerr in 1888 were likewise important.
He prepared the basis for the astronomical observatories in Potsdam: in 1874 the foundation of the Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam on the Telegrafenberg and in 1913 the removal of the BerlinObservatory to Babelsberg.
At the end of the 19th century the BerlinObservatory, originally built outside the border of the town, was enclosed by blocks of flats and scientific observations were almost impossible.
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