15 Years of Rebuilding the Oldest Observatory of Mecklenburg in Remplin

In the small village of Remplin, between Malchin and Teterow, the ruins of an 18th century observatory are located. It was erected about 1793 by Count Friedrich von Hahn (1742-1805). The original garden house was architectually completed in 1801 by the observatory tower. The instrumental equipment of the Hahn Observatory (the "Oxen Tower" in the common tongue of the inhabitants of Remplin) was very generous. In addition to the instruments used for determining star positions, the Cary Circle and the Dollond Meridian Telescope, there where also powerful reflectors on hand.

The Cary Circle was a full circle with a diameter of 25 inches. Its telescope had a focus length of 33 inches and an aperture of two inches. It had been adjusted by the help of a meridian pillar, which stood out in the field. This pillar, which has withstood the tides of time up until today, will be placed in the next couple of years in the vicinity of the observatory's tower. The Cary Circle, along with the four-inch meridian telescope, and a one-inch universal equatorial, all went after Hahn's death by procurement of the director of the Berlin Observatory, Johann Elert Bode (1747-1826), to Koenigsberg.

There, the instruments were used beginning from 1810 as the main instruments of the newly built University Observatory chaired by Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784-1846). Especially the two telescopes mentioned above first belonged to the instruments allowing the highest precision in determining the positions of the stars. Through the correspondence between Bessel and Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) and Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers (1758-1840), we are privileged with a unique look into Bessel's opinion about these instruments. Bessel speaks very highly of the Hahn instruments. The Cary Circle can be found today in the German Museum (Deutsches Museum) in Munich and is integrated into the new Astronomy Exhibit.

Alltogether, Bessel inherited seven instruments from the estate of Count Hahn (in addition to the already named instruments, he also received a comet-finder, two mirror-based sextants, and a pendulum-clock). With that, it can be said that the Koenigsberg Observatory was almost totally fitted with the remnants of the Remplin Observatory.

In addition to the precision instruments, F. v. Hahn also possessed three relectors, whose mirrors were made by none other than Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel (1738-1822) himself. Next to the huge mirrors of Hieronymus Schroeter (1745-1816) in Lilienthal and Gottlieb Friedrich Schrader (1763-1833) in Kiel the Hahn reflectors were the largest on the European Continent. The two large telescopes had a length of 20 feet and apertures of 18 and 12 inches, resp. The parameters of the smaller reflector were seven feet of focal length and eight inches of aperture. On the whereabouts of these "optical giants" there are controversial reports.

The Remplin Observatory was the first astronomical observatory in Mecklenburg. Unfortunately, it was only used for observation up until the death of the count on the 9 October 1805. In the year 1842 for unknown reasons the turnable dome was replaced by a fixed one. The further erosion of this observatory began in 1857 with the demolition of the main building. Now only the tower remains, which have got stairs on the outside, and has in the following decades been used as an observation platform. In the last days of the Second World War it was badly damaged. In the following years the ongoing destruction through vandalism has eroded the tower even further, so that as we (then as a school-work project group, and now as a society) saw it for the first time, only stood as a ruined structure, which could collapse at any moment.

It began a long journey with the various administrative bodies up until the moment when our work became acknowledged as useful by the then appropriate departments. In the beginning years we cleared away a large amount of rubble, and took measurements of the area of the observatory. On this basis a plan for preservation could be worked out. Since 1985 the major concern there had been the condition of the site, and only after this the slow rebuilding could start. The retrieval of building material for the site often portrayed a nearly unsolvable task. Old barnes intended for demolition were our prefered sources. If we compare the time in the earlier period to the time now, and take into account that during the GDR's period there was money for rebuilding such structures, but hardly any material, it appears that the tables are now opposite, because today money turns out to be the outstanding factor, not material.

However, since the end of the eighties, the political representatives and the administrative authorities of Remplin appreciate our work. The second floor is now complete, and we are confident that in the next few years the upper floor along with the main rotating dome will be completed by our group. A plan has been made fixing the necessary work until completion, as well as describing which parts can be taken over by our society and which have to be realized by specialized firms. We hope that this cultural and historical monument could be rebuilt up to the 200th birthday of the tower and eventually be utilized again as a fully functional observatory.

This translation has first been published in Electronic Newsletter for the History of Astronomy No. 10, 1995. Reprinted with permission.