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50 Planetarian December 2013 Tracing Paths of History Rudolf Straubel, Walter Bauersfeld, and the Projection Planetarium

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50 Planetarian December 2013 Tracing Paths of History Rudolf Straubel, Walter Bauersfeld, and the Projection Planetarium Opening page of the US patent issued for the “Device for Projecting Stars.” Public record from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Additional images from the same source on page 52. 50 Planetarian December 2013 Tracing paths of history Rudolf Straubel, Walter Bauersfeld, and the projection planetarium Peter Volz 7131 Farralone Avenue #48 Canoga Park, California 91303, USA [email protected] Part 1 relationship between these two entities we As the 100th anniversary (February 24, need to take a short trip back in time to their 1914) of the invention of the concept for the beginnings, especially of Zeiss. projection planetarium approaches, we take this opportunity to revisit the history of this Beginnings of the Zeiss company milestone event, and to explore the leading Carl Zeiss and Ernst Abbe: Optical contributions made to the invention. While workshop joins with physical sciences the name of Walther Bauersfeld (1879-1959) is Carl Zeiss founded the Zeiss Optical Co. in widely known in connection with the plan- Jena, Germany in 1846. The company manu- etarium’s invention, another lesser-known factured microscopes and lenses in an empiri- name is also of significance – that of Rudolf cal (trial and error) process. Not satisfied with Straubel (1864-1943). his production methods, in 1866 Carl Zeiss ap- Rudolf Straubel This article will highlight the persona of proached Ernst Abbe to join the company as Rudolf Straubel, his life, and career at Zeiss. research director. Based in large part on documents found in At the time, Abbe was a lecturer in physics the archives of the Deutsches Museum in and mathematics at Jena University, where to Ernst Abbe. Not having an interest in a sus- Munich and supplemented by published ac- he became a professor in 1870. Abbe succeed- tained private ownership of the company, in counts of Franz Fuchs and Bauersfeld, both of ed in perfecting a scientific approach for mi- 1889 Abbe created the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung. whom were participants at the crucial event croscope and lens manufacturing, leading to This for-profit foundation/trust was ruled cited above, it will show in detail the rela- more accurate, predictable and economical by an elaborate set of statutes and principles tionships between Zeiss and the museum un- products at the Zeiss workshop. which included: der Straubel’s leadership at Zeiss, along with As a reward, in 1876 Zeiss made Abbe a part- • no private ownership of the Zeiss Compa- Straubel’s personal impact on the develop- ner in his business. In 1878, Abbe likewise be- ny; ment of the projection planetarium. came director of the astronomical and meteo- • its assets deeded largely to the University of Using documents from the family archive rological observatories in Jena. Jena; of Straubel relative Linda Langer Snook, the Finally, in 1879, chemist and glassmaker • management of the company to be han- article will further tell the story of Straubel’s Otto Schott (1851-1935) joined Abbe and Zeiss. dled by four directors on an equal basis; retirement from Zeiss in 1933, his final years, His firm, Schott & Genossen Glass Works of • balance of the estate donated to the em- and the fate of his family. Finally, we will ex- Jena, founded in 1884, went on to produce the ployees of Carl Zeiss. plore why his name, his contributions to the glass used exclusively in the Carl Zeiss micro- The statutes also prescribe benefits for the development of the planetarium concept, and scopes. employees, including paid vacations, sick pay, his fate, have remained largely unknown. eight-hour work day, invalid and old age pen- Since the first projection planetarium was Ernst Abbe and the Carl Zeiss Foundation sions for workers and their families, represen- built by Zeiss for the Deutsches Museum, in When Carl Zeiss died in 1888, his son Roder- tation to management, banishment of dis- order to better understand the nature of the ick Zeiss sold all assets of the Zeiss Optical Co. crimination based on race, religion, politics, and others. The Stiftung was a business and social ex- Peter Volz (born 1950) is a grandson of Zeiss optical physicist Ernst Wandersleb (1879- periment that, in its content and scope, was 1963), whose family had close ties to the Straubel and Langer families. During his child- way ahead of the times. Important in the con- hood in Germany Volz met the two Straubel sons Heinz and Harald. It was only after more text of this article is the Stiftung’s principle recently contacting Straubel's great-nephew Gerhard Langer in the US that Volz became which aims to “support science and technol- interested in the persona of Rudolf Straubel. This then led to a visit to the archives of the ogy outside as well as within the enterprises, Deutsches Museum in Munich and further research. Volz wrote the article on the sugges- and the participation in projects that served tion of planetarium historian Jordan Marché, a former editor of the Planetarian. the general good.” (10 Gale Directory of Com- December 2013 Planetarian 51 pany Histories: Carl Zeiss AG; see also: 2 Auer- The couple had four sons: Heinz (b. 1895), Wer- to hire eight to twelve more engineers. Abbe bach) ner (b. 1897), Wolfgang (b. 1899), and Harald (b. appears to have remained skeptical vis-à-vis 1905). Straubel’s prophecy which, however, soon Transition from Abbe to the next In 1901, feeling that his strength was wan- was going to become reality. (20 Schomerus generation: Rudolf Straubel joins the firm ing, Abbe again approached Rudolf Straubel. p. 130) Abbe had hired, in 1884, the young optical This time, Straubel agreed and joined Zeiss From August 1905 to June 1907, Walther physicist Siegfried Czapski (1861-1907) to be in the role of scientific consultant. An anec- Bauersfeld also worked for Zeiss as an engi- his assistant, who then became a close associ- dote reports Abbe as saying “A weight is off neer. Bauersfeld had attracted Straubel’s atten- ate. Another “person of interest” for Abbe was my shoulders, now that Straubel has agreed tion because of his exceptional mathemati- Rudolf Straubel. Here is a short account of his to join.” (26 Wandersleb) Important for Abbe cal and engineering/construction skills. (20 early life and career before joining Zeiss. were Straubel’s scientific and managerial tal- Schomerus p. 171) Straubel was born on June 16, 1864 in south- ents. On April 1, 1908, Straubel succeeded in his ern Thuringia, the son of a protestant pastor. When Abbe resigned from actively lead- effort to have Bauersfeld rejoin Zeiss as the After attending high school in Gotha and Co- ing Zeiss on September 24, 1903, he named leading engineer, and also to join the Zeiss burg, he studied in Jena and Berlin, with ma- Straubel “scientific director for life” on the management team, replacing Czapski, who jors in physics and mathematics and minors four-member management team. The oth- had died on June 29, 1907. in mineralogy and physical chemistry. He er members were Siegfried Czapski (who also first came into contact with Abbe and Otto became “bevollmächtigter,” or power of at- The Carl Zeiss Company and the Schott in 1885. In the summer of 1888, Straubel torney of the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung following Deutsches Museum received his PhD in Jena, with a dissertation Abbe’s resignation), Max Fischer, and Otto In 1904, the Bavarian entrepreneur and en- on an optical problem suggested by Prof. Ernst Schott. gineer Oskar von Miller (1855-1934) founded Abbe. Ernst Abbe died on January 14, 1905. Rudolf the “Museum of scientific and technical mas- From 1889 until 1901, Straubel pursued a Straubel was Abbe’s hand-picked successor, ter works” in Munich, Germany. His purpose university career in Jena, first as assistant at continuing the role of scientific head of Zeiss was “to portray scientific research in its vari- the Physics Institute until 1896, from 1893 on as established by Abbe. ous development phases, and to show the ef- as adjunct professor; then from 1897 on as full fects that mutually stimulate science and in- professor. He gave lectures and performed re- Introducing Meyer and Bauersfeld dustry from ancient times until today, in a search in numerous areas of physics, in partic- Two other persons need to be introduced as manner as instructive and as easily under- ular optical physics, but also physical chem- they would become important figures in the standable for the common people as possible.” istry, geophysics, geodesy, crystal physics, planetarium story: Franz Meyer and Walther (9 Fuchs pp. 8-9) thermodynamics and electrotechnics. (13Jen- Bauersfeld. For the astronomy department, von Miller tzsch, p. 216) On July 1, 1903, Franz Meyer (1868-1933) thought to present an historic developmental During these years, Abbe consistently kept joined Zeiss, the first engineer with a univer- series of instruments and artifacts; demonstra- an eye on the young scientist. In the late 1880s sity degree hired by the dynamically growing tions of the movements of the stars and celes- and early 1890s he tried to persuade Straubel optical company. The choice of Meyer was in- tial bodies; and a functioning observatory. (9 to come to work for Zeiss. But at that time tended to aid with the construction of large Fuchs p. 38) Straubel declined, preferring instead to be in- astronomical instruments that Zeiss had just The cooperation between Zeiss and the volved in academia rather than industry. added to its product palette. Deutsches Museum began during the year In 1894, Straubel married Marie Kern (b. According to an anecdote, Straubel told of the museum’s inception. In a letter dated 1865), the daughter of a Jewish industrialist.
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