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.
Paul ten Bruggencate
Ten Bruggencate became chief astronomer at the Potsdam Observatory in 1935. The most valuable equipment at that time at Potsdam was the solar telescope in the Einstein Tower. From that time on, the main focus of ten Bruggencate's research became the Sun. In 1941, during World War II, ten Bruggencate became the director at the Göttingen University Observatory. In pursuing his interest in observing the Sun, he looked for a new solar telescope. The already existing observatory at the Hainberg, south east of Göttingen, provided the best location within the surrounding area. The interest of the military in the effect of the Sun on short wave radio communication made it possible to build this observatory during the war. Military patronage and ten Bruggencate's profound knowledge of the solar telescope in Potsdam assisted construction of the new telescope.