Association of Friends of the Cabinet of Astronomy and Physics in Kassel, Germany
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What can I do?
You can show your support for this group’s aims and their protest against the current policies of Hessen Kassel Heritage with your name and mail address. Write a mail to info@freundesk reis-apk.de. and please leave a comment. No obligations are connected with this. We will publish a list of all supporters with their names and Places of residence. Your mail address will be kept internally and privately so we can keep you informed.The Association of Friends of the Cabinet of Astronomy and Physics serves as a platform for all who care for or are worried about the future of this internationally and regionally significant collection of scientific instruments. This association is not a formal society but an informal support group. The organisers have already drawn attention to the importance of Kassel as a locus of important astronomical research. The replication and public demonstration of Landgrave Carl’s aerial telescope, one of the many highlights of the astronomical collection, is but the start…
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Cause and Objectives
From 1927 until 2022 the scientific instruments of the Hessen-Kassel landgraves were initially displayed in the Hessian State Museum then in the Orangerie. Among others shown were the world-renowned astronomical instruments and clocks of Landgrave Wilhelm IV. The Cabinet of Astronomy and Physics and the planetarium formed in the Orangerie a science museum widely beloved by the public. In 2019 (before the Covid epidemy) the number of visitors was as high as that in Wilhelmshöhe Palace. In 2022 Martin Eberle then director of Hessen Kassel Heritage (HKH) decided to close the museum and planetarium due to “structural reasons”. The catering business of the Café in the eastern wing though was allowed to continue and does so until today. Mr. Eberle presented to the press a plan after which parts of the collection were to be displayed together with the Applied Arts Collection in the Hessian State Museum. He also had the collection’s name changed to “Technical Collection”, a deliberately meaningless name. Thanks to the personal intervention of state minister Timon Gremmels the planetarium could be reopened in 2024. The future of this collection, containing such incunables as the oldest still existing quadrant for astronomical measurements and the oldest clock accurate to the second, is still open. Furthermore, no part of the collection is currently on display. The organisers of the “Association of Friends” are therefore advocating a new exhibition at a suitable place and in the modern communication of technical and scientific developments and inventions.. […] In addition, the organisers demand to rescind the name change. It is nothing else as the obliteration of a well-known cultural brand.
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Activities
The organisers have already indicated to the collection’s importance by demonstrating the replica of Landgrave Carl’s aerial telescope, one of the many highlights of the astronomical collection. Together with the Historical Association of Kassel a reconstruction of the Oberneustadt observatory (today the Palais Bellevue) was represented together with a historical contextualisation. It became famous by its representation in the Atlas Novus Coelestis by Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr in 1742. Current project is the detailed reconstruction of Landgrave Wilhelm IV.’s observatory in the Kassel city palace around 1590. Here star positions were measured with an accuracy rivalling Tycho Brahe and sometimes even surpassing him. A 3D model of the observational platform together with working and storage rooms including the observational instruments will be generated. Christoph Rothmann and Jost Bürgi developed for their times highly precise observational methods founded on time measuring. Furthermore 361 fixed star positions were surveyed in the landgrave observatory and collected in a star catalogue.
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29.10.2024 Demonstration of a prototype of the Kassel aerial telescope on the Friedrich Place during the Day of Astronomy.
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29.3.2025 The modern-day Kassel observatories relocate their public activities during the partial solar eclipse in front of the Orangerie.
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6.6.2025 Long night of the planetarium. Presentations and exhibition in the Planetarium, public observations with the 32m aerial telescope in front of the Orangerie.
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4.7.2025 Off to the Palais Bellevue – Baroque meets innovation. A joint event of the Historical Association of Kassel together with the Cabinet of Astronomy and Physics and the modern-day observatories. Presentation of a reconstruction of the Oberneustadt observatory with lectures and performances
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Aktuelles Projekt: Rekonstruktion einer der frühesten SternwarteCurrent project: Reconstruction of one of the earliest early modern observatories of Landgrave Wilhelm IV. on the southern balcony of the city palace, around 1570.
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Current Status
As of August 2025 a reopening of the Cabinet of Physics and Astronomy is not foreseeable. The Association of Friends is in the founding stage.
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The history of the Cabinet of Astronomy and Physics and its collection
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1560: During the extension of the Kassel City Palace Landgrave Wilhelm IV. orders the construction of an annex at the south-eastern corner. Here on its platform the most precise astronomical measurements of the 16th century are undertaken.
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1573: The first inventory of the astronomical instruments and books Landgrave Wilhelm IV. (1532 – 1592) used is drawn up. Most of these instruments he used “uff der Aldaunn”, the room from which you could exit to the observatory, still exist today in the collection.
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1598: Landgrave Moritz The Learned founds a Knight School for the Nobility. The astronomical instruments are used as teaching instruments for the first time.
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1644: The second inventory of the astronomical instruments and the clocks is drawn up.
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From 1696 onwards: Landgrave Carl orders the collection of scientific instruments (that he had expanded significantly) relocated to the House of Art (formerly Ottoneum). Here they are stored in rooms divided according to scientific disciplines.
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1707: Founding of the second observatory in Kassel upon the roof of the House of Art.
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1709: The Collegium Carolinum Illustre is founded by Landgrave Carl. It is intended that the students receive an education much more founded on experimental natural philosophy (natural sciences). The collection is used for teaching and research purposes.
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1714: Construction of the Palais Bellevue as third Kassel observatory. Its outfit contained some of the at the time most powerful telescopes.
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1779: The collection of mathematical, physical, optical and astronomical instruments as well as the clocks is moved from the House of Art into the newly founded Museum Fridericianum.
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1782: The fourth Kassel observatory is founded by Landgrave Friedrich II. and located on the Zwehrenturm (A medieval tower). All instruments acquired for this occasion still exist in the collection today. Within the tower observational windows for the long telescopes can still be seen as well as the fittings for the mural quadrant of Christian Breithaupt.
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1913: The collection is moved from the Museum Fridericanum into the newly constructed Hessian State Museum. The instruments and clocks are exhibited on the ground level in the order of disciplines (Astronomy, Mathematics, Optics, Mechanics, Clocks).
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1992: The „Museum of Astronomy and History of Technology with Planetarium” is founded in the Orangerie as a modern Science and Technology Museum.
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2004: The museum receives its old name “Cabinet of Astronomy and Physics” back.
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2016: The planetarium is outfitted with the latest digital projection apparatus.
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2022: The Cabinet of Astronomy and Physics is closed due to structural reasons, the collection is moved to the depot.
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2024: The planetarium is reopend.
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Links:
Cabinet of Astronomy and Physics (temporarily Technical Instruments)
Historical Kassel Observatories (Project of the Association)
Laboratoryastrophysics of the University of Kassel
Public Observatory in Rothwesten
Astronomical Study Group Kassel
Association for Hessian History Kassel