The beginning (1903-1939)
- 1903: the Bavarian entrepreneur Oscar von Miller announced plans to create an industrial museum in Munich (Germany)
- 1904: Siegfried Czapski (Zeiss) is in the Presidium board of the Deutsches Museum (DM)
- 1905: Miller wanted to install a Copernican room (heliocentric) and a Ptolemaic room (geocentric). Sendtner instrument company of Munich is chosen.
- 1906: opening of the Deutsches Museum in Munich (in temporary quarters)
- Summer 1912: Miller draw a room-scale plan for a motorized Copernican planetarium; calls out to all of Germany (plans in a trade magazine) but not to Zeiss; he refuses all the proposals.
- August 1912: Miller ask Zeiss for a telescope for the west dome and asks Rudolf Straubel to replace Czapski at the DM office. Straubel declines (sick) but ok for the west dome telescope.
- October 1, 1912: plan of the Ptolemaic planetarium with the addition of the starry sky on a 7m sphere, transparent, the observers will be standing in the center on a platform (therefore the evening sky in Munich according to the date and time + the solar system). Someone suggests a projection for the Solar System.
- February 4, 1913: E. Hindermann (Basel, Switzerland: the Orbitoscope) sends a letter to Von Miller
- 1913: Franz Miller proposes plans for a system close to Gottorf's globe
- May 15 to 20, 1913: Von Miller writes to Kurt Sorge (Krupp subsidiary) who offers 3 companies including Zeiss first
- July 22, 1913: Von Miller asks Zeiss if they can build the Copernican planetarium
- July 30, 1913: Max Pauly (Zeiss Astro department) answers no.
- October 1, 1913: Straubel at DM: ok for the construction of 2 giant planetariums (at the 10th annual meeting of the presidium of the DM): Von Miller met Straubel the day before to discuss the manufacture of the planetariums
- October 3, 1913: in an official letter: the DM asks Zeiss to build a Copernican planetarium and another Ptolemaic for their new building
- October 7, 1913: Franz Miller is sent to Munich to study the plans and buildings of the DM
- January 15, 1914: Von Miller sends a letter to Zeiss, no answer
- February 21, 1914: Von Miller sends a telegram, the same day Zeiss says he is ready to receive Dr Franz Fuchs
- February 24, 1914: meeting in Jena (Straubel, Bauersfeld, Meyer all from Zeiss and Fuchs from DM (Von Miller absent from Fuchs but not from Bauersfeld in his 1957 article): Bauersfeld proposes a projection solution for planets and Straubel for the stars, with the enthusiasm of the other participants.
Birth of the concept of the modern planetarium: a device in the center of the room capable of projecting the night sky (stars: recognize the constellations, planets, Moon and Sun) on a screen dome, the visitors are inside
- March 20, 1914: Von Miller: letter to Zeiss for the new design
- April 6, 1914: Von Miller: after a return trip to Jena: new plans
- July 28, 1914: WW1
- During the war, the work continued (Meyer and Villiger at the head of the astronomy department at Zeiss)
- February 3, 1917: concept is made public for the first time
- July 7, 1917: Meeting at Zeiss: Straubel, Bauersfeld, Wieland, Becker and Von Miller for DM
- May 24, 1918: Straubel sends a telegram to Von Miller announcing a donation of 5,000 marks for the construction of the DM library
- shortly after, Meyer is sent to DM.
- November 11, 1918: end of the war
- March 21, 1919: Meyer wants to send a letter in which he proposes to abandon the project of projecting the stars (too difficult) But Bauersfeld intercepts him and, on March 24, proposes a solution
- October 17, 1922: Zeiss files a patent
- from July to September 1923: a 16 meters concrete-shell dome was fabricated on the Zeiss factory roof in Jena. (first public demonstrations with the prototype "Mark 1")
- September 17, 1923: exchanges between Bauersfeld and Von Miller for a demonstration in Munich
- October 21, 1923, a 10m dome opens in Munich with the same projector.
- from October to December 1923: demonstrations in Munich before returning to Jena
- January 1924: Mark 1 returns to Jena
- April 3, 1924: the patent for the projector is filed in the name of Bauersfeld.
- from August to October 1924: public demonstration on the roof of Zeiss (to the dismay of Von Miller)
- May 7, 1925: opening ceremony of the Deutsches Museum "first" modern "official" planetarium with a Zeiss model I (special thanks to Straubel and Meyer), new (and definitive) place for the Deutsches Museum
- 1925: development of the second prototype "Mark 1" (for Düsseldorf) and the first production model "Mark II" (Barmen, Leipzig, Jena, Dresden, etc.)
- May 1926: first installation Zeiss Mark II (in Germany)
- May 1927: first installation abroad (Austria)
- Fall 1939: WWII (last installation of Zeiss II)
Before the World War II (1923-1939)
- August 1923: on the roof of the Zeiss factory in Jena, 16m, Zeiss 1 (fist public projection)
- October 21, 1923: Deutsches Museum of Munich, 10m, Zeiss 1 (the same projector)
- May 7, 1925: Deutsches Museum of Munich, 10m, Zeiss 1 (first official opening to the public).
- May 18, 1926: Barmen, (Wuppertal), 24.6m, 600s, first Zeiss II (destroyed), 1926-1943
- May 20, 1926: Leipzig, 24.7m, 600s, Zeiss II (destroyed) 1926-1943
- May 23, 1926: Düsseldorf, 29.8m, 1,000s, Zeiss model 1b, (during 6 months)
- July 18, 1926: Jena, 23m, 400s, Zeiss II (1926-1953-1969),
- July 24, 1926: Dresden, 24.7m, Zeiss II (destroyed), 1926-1933-1945
- November 27, 1926: Berlin, 24.8m, 424s, Zeiss II (destroyed during WWII)
- January 2, 1927: Düsseldorf, Zeiss II (the model 1b go to Liegnitz). (Zeiss II lost? during WWII...)
- March 22, 1927: Mannheim, 24.5, 514s, Zeiss II (1927-1943) saled to Oberkochen in 1955...
- April 10, 1927: Nuremberg, 23m, Zeiss II (purchased February 12, 1925), 1927-1934 (dismantled and ?)
- May 7, 1927: Vienne, 20m, 460s, Zeiss II (moved the January 8, 1930 in other place: Praterstern), 1927-1945 (destroyed)
- June 25, 1927: Liegnitz, 13m, Zeiss model 1b (from Düsseldorf then The Hague (Netherlands) in 1934.
- April 29, 1928: Hannover, 19.7m, Zeiss II (1928-1945) burned?
- May 16, 1928: Stuttgart, 24.7m, 450s, Zeiss II (1923-1943) in exhibit
- October 28, 1928: Rome, 23m, 370s, Zeiss II (1928-1973)
- November 5, 1929: Moscow, 25m, Zeiss II (23/1) 1929-1977
- April 15, 1930: Hamburg, 20.6m, 360s, Zeiss II (then Johannesburg, Zeiss III: 1956-1960-2023)
- May 10, 1930: Chicago, 20.7m, Zeiss II (Adler) 1930-1961 (Zeiss III)-1970
- May 15, 1930: Stockholm, 25m, Zeiss II (Universal Exhibition, 4.5 months), then Skansen, Goteborg, Morehead: 1949
- May 20, 1930: Milan, 19.6m, 407s, Zeiss II (1930-1968)
- 1931: Lubeck, 4m, 25s, Nachtigall prototype
- November 1, 1933: Philadelphia, 20m, Zeiss II (Fels) 1933-1962
- February 20, 1934: The Hague, 11.8m, Zeiss model 1b (from Liegnitz), until 1976.
- May 14, 1935: Los Angeles, 22.9m, 663s, Zeiss II (Griffith) 1935-1964 (then Baton Rouge: III)-1967-1988 "model IV"
- June 7, 1935: Brussels, 23m, 500s, Zeiss II (Universal Exhibition), 1926: built - 1935: opened - 1939: closed - 1954-1966
- October 2, 1935: New York, 22.8m, 763s, Zeiss II (Hayden), 1935-1960
- July 13, 1936: San José, 13.7m, 98s, Lewis prototype (Rosicrucian Park), 1936-1950
- March 13, 1937: Osaka, 18m, 350s, Zeiss II (No 24), 1937-1989 (in exhibit)
- May 5, 1937: Paris, 23.5m, 600s, Zeiss II (Universal Exhibition, 7 months) then Palais de la Découverte: 1952-1979 (ruins)
- October 20, 1937: Springfield, 10.2m, 100s, Korkosz prototype (Seymour)
- 1937: Bronshoj, 5m, 35s, Nachtigall prototype
- October 30, 1938: Tokyo, 20m, 600s, Zeiss II, 1938-1945 (burned)
- March 4, 1939: Haarlem, 5m, 25s, Ge Pieterse prototype (then Vlissingen: 1957)
- October 24, 1939: Pittsburgh, 19.8m, 381s, Zeiss II (Buhl), 1939-1991
More
- WPD
- IPS: Planetarium Centennial
- GDP: Centennial of the planetarium
Bibliography:
- Jordan D. Marché II, Theaters of time and Space: American Planetaria, 1930-1970, ed. Rutgers University Press, 2005
- William Firebrace, Star Theatre, The story of the Planetarium, ed. Reaktion books, 2017
- Heinz Letsch, Captured Stars, ed. VEB Carl Zeiss Jena, 1959
- Walter Villiger, Le Planétaire Zeiss, (Das Zeiss-planetarium), ed. Bernard Vopelius, 1926