Kirch, Gottfried

1. Dates

Born: Guben, Germany, 18 Dec 1639

Died: Berlin, 25 Jul 1710

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 71

2. Father

Occupation: Artisan

He was the son of a tailor. Because of unrest, his parents had had to flee Poland, leaving all of their belongings, and Gottfried apparently had to provide for himself while continuing his education.

That is, they were poor.

3. Nationality

Birth: Guben, Germany

Career: Germany

Death: Berlin, Germany

4. Education

Schooling: Jena

He studied at Jena under the polyhistorian Erhard Weigel. No mention of a degree.

He learned practical astronomy from Hevelius in Danzig, probably acting as some kind of apprentice.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Lutheran

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Astronomy

7. Means of Support

Primary: Calendars, Government

He lived in mostly in Leipzig and Coburg, until he moved to Guben around 1690, making his living by computing and publishing calendars and ephemerides. His first calendar appeared in 1667, and it was published annually from 1685- 1710, when his son took over.

In 1700, he was called to Berlin by Frederick III, elector of Brandenburg (later Frederick I of Prussia) as the first astronomer at the observatory to be established with the new Berlin Academy. He received a salary of 500 taler which was taken out of the earnings from the new calendar monopoly established by Friedrich in 1700.

8. Patronage

Types: Scientist, Court Official, Aristrocrat, Academic

Erhard Weigel, his first teacher, ought to be counted as a patron. First, he recommended Kirch to Hevelius, from whom Kirch learned how to observe and how to calculate calendars. Later, in 1697, Weigel appeared at the Reichstag in Regensburg advocating the acceptance of the Gregorian calendar by the Protestant princes. He told his former student Leibniz of his plan for the foundation of a "collegium artis consultorum" of approximately 20 members which should work for the Reichstag in exectuing the calendar reform and thereafter hold the monopoly on calendar production. Leibniz lobbied his patroness Sophie Charlotte of Brandeburg, and she, in turn, convinced her husband, Elector Friedrich, of the uselfulness of such a scientific society. "The Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin" was founded in 1700. Leibnitz, its first president, called Gottfried Kirch to Berlin as astronomer of the Society to carry through the calendar reform which had been approved in 1699. The calendar monopoly (whose income was estimated at 2500 taler in 1700) was the primary source of income for the Berlin academy for the entire 18th century.

Clearly, Frederick III was his most important patron. Even before he called Kirch to Berlin (1700), some friends had seen his pitiful financial situation in Leipzig and had appealed to the Elector, without Kirch's knowledge, for a stipend. He granted it, but Kirch refused it, fearing some poor students, for whom the funds had originally been intended, would be deprived.

While in Berlin awaiting the construction of the new observatory (which was not finished in his lifetime), Kirch made some observations at the private observatory of Baron Bernhard Friedrich von Krosigk, a wealthy nobleman and amateur astronomer.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Instruments

Kirch made a number of instruments, and also invented a new circular micrometer (1679).

10. Scientific Societies

Membership: Berlin Academy

Kirch was the first astronomer at the observatory of the newly-established Berlin academy (1700).

Sources

1. Guenther, Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, 15, 787-8.
2. Diedrich Wattenberg, Neue deutsche Biographie (Berlin, 1952-), 11, 634-5.
3. P. Aufgebauer, "Die Astronomenfamilie Kirch," Die Sterne, 47 (1971), 241-7.

Not Available and Not Consulted

1. J.E. Bode, Astronomisches Jahrbuck für das Jahr 1816, (Berlin, 1813), pp. 111, 113f. H. Ludendorff, "Zur Frühgeschichte der Astronomie in Berlin," Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaft, Vorträge und Schriften, 9 (1942).

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email on geneological questions.