Everything about Walther Bauersfeld totally explained
Walther Bauersfeld (
January 23,
1879 in
Berlin–
October 28,
1959 in
Heidenheim an der Brenz) was a German engineer, employed by the
Zeiss Corporation, who, on a suggestion by the German astronomer
Max Wolf, started work on the first projection
planetarium in
1912. This work was halted by military needs during
World War I, but resumed after the war. Bauersfeld completed the first planetarium, known as the Zeiss I model in
1923, and it was initially placed on the roof of a Zeiss building in the corporate headquarters town of
Jena. This model projected 4,900 stars, and was limited to showing the sky only from Jena's
latitude. Subsequently, Bauersfeld developed the Model 2 with 8,956 stars, and full latitude capability. Over a dozen were installed before
World War II again suspended planetarium work. These inter-war planetariums went into
Berlin and
Düsseldorf in Germany, as well as
Rome,
Paris,
Chicago,
Los Angeles and
New York. The Düsseldorf planetarium didn't survive the war, not from military action, but was removed by the
Nazi government because it had been a donation of a Jewish businessman.
The Zeiss I planetarium in Jena is also considered the first
geodesic dome derived from the
icosahedron, more than 20 years before
Buckminster Fuller reinvented and popularized this approach.
Post-war, the Zeiss firm, like Germany, split in two. Bauersfeld remained with the core firm in Jena,
East Germany, where after
1953 he developed the ZKP-1 (Zeisskleinplanetarium=Zeiss Small Planetarium #1). This was intended for small dome planetariums, and while it had latitude change capabilities, the operator had to turn a hand crank to accomplish this. The ZKP-2 added a motor for latitude change. Bauersfeld retired shortly after the ZKP-2 was introduced.
A monthly newsletter named in Walther Bauersfeld's honor, "Bauersfeld's Folly", was circulated to mostly North American planetariums
1973 to
1983.
Asteroid 1553 Bauersfelda was named in his honor.
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