Berlin Observatory
The Berlin Observatory (Berliner Sternwarte) is a German astronomical institution with a series of observatories and related organizations in and around the city of Berlin in Germany, starting from the 18th century. It has its origins in 1700 when Gottfried Leibniz initiated the "Brandenburg Society of Science″ ("Sozietät der Wissenschaften") which would later (1744) become the Prussian Academy of Sciences ("Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften"). The Society had no observatory but nevertheless an astronomer, Gottfried Kirch, who observed from a private observatory in Berlin. A first small observatory was furnished in 1711, financing itself by calendrical computations.
Stuttgart Observatory
To gather enough monetary funds for the construction of the Observatory at the site it still is today, even such famous guest speakers as Albert Einstein followed the invitation to give a speech about astronomy and donate the revenue to the Schwäbische Sternwarte e.V.. The construction of the observatory, designed by Wilhelm Jost, took place in 1921. Already in early January 1922 the association started operations at the new observatory. During World War II, all activities at the observatory were suspended, only to be resumed in September 1947.