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.
Oscar Martay
During the peak of the Cold War in 1950, Oscar Martay, who was stationed in Berlin as a film officer of the Information Service Branch of the American High Commissioner for Germany, suggested the foundation of the Berlin International Film Festival. The proposal was put through a committee including members of the Senate of Berlin and people from the German film industry on October 9, 1950. Through his efforts and influence, the American military administration was persuaded to assist and to give loans for the first years of the Berlinale which held the first festival in June 1951.