Berlin Observatory

The Berlin Observatory (Berliner Sternwarte in German) has its origins in 1700 when Gottfried Leibniz initiated the Societät der Wissenschaften (Brandenburgische Science Society) which would later (1744) become the Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Prussian Academy of Sciences). The Society had no observatory, but nevertheless had an astronomer, Gottfried Kirch, who observed from a private observatory in Berlin. A first small observatory was furnished in 1711, financing itself through calendrical computations. Johann Franz Encke was appointed director by King Frederick William III of Prussia in 1825. With the help of Alexander von Humboldt, Encke got the King to agree to finance a true observatory, but on condition was that the observatory be made accessible to the public two nights per week. The building was designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, and began working in 1835. It now has the IAU observatory code 548.