Berlin Observatory
The construction of the new Berlin Observatory proceeded from a cabinet order of 10 November 1830 according to the design of Schinkel. An approximately one hectare plot was acquired at a price of 15,000 Thalers in the present-day area of Berlin-Kreuzberg. The foundation stone was laid on 22 October 1832 and the observatory was ready by 1835, on the area currently bounded by the streets ″Friedrichstraße″, ″Besselstraße″ and ″Lindenstraße″. The southern end of the ″Charlottenstraße″ was later named ″Enckeplatz″ in honor of the director at that time and the observatory acquired the address of Enckeplatz 3 A (now: ″Enckestraße 11″).
Berlin scientific balloon flights
In 1885, Wilhelm von Bezold was appointed to the newly established Chair for Meteorology at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, and as the director of the Prussian Meteorological Institute, both in Berlin. He profoundly restructured the institute, and hired three scientific commissioners on 1 April 1886, among whom was the physician and meteorologist Richard Aßmann from Magdeburg. Aßmann had been working since 1883 on a measurement device that could measure the air temperature accurately in spite of the disruptive effect of solar radiation. In 1887, Aßmann joined the Society for Promotion of Aeronautics (founded in 1881) together with other early Berlin meteorologists, where he got to know the engineer Hans Bartsch von Sigsfeld. Sigsfeld had worked on the same problem for the aviation department (established in 1884) of the Railway Troops of the Prussian Army. Together, they developed the Aßmann aspiration psychrometer, which excluded the influence of sunlight through shielding and permanent ventilation.