Arthur Berson

Arthur Josef Stanislaus Berson (6 August 1859 – 3 December 1942) was a Germanmeteorologist and pioneer of aerology who was a native of Neu Sandez, Galicia (now Nowy Sącz, Poland).

After visiting the gymnasium in Neu Sandez, Berson studied philology in Vienna. He then studied meteorology and geography in Berlin, where he had as instructors Ferdinand von Richthofen and Wilhelm von Bezold. In 1890 he was an assistant to meteorologist Richard Aßmann at the Meteorological Institute in Berlin. During this period of time he was also secretary of the Deutschen Verein zur Förderung der Luftschiffahrt, the first aeronautical organization in Germany. In 1900 he became Hauptobservator at the newly founded Aeronautics Observatory in Berlin-Tegel, and was later stationed at the Lindenberg Aeronautical Observatory in Beeskow. From 1896 to 1899 Berson was editor of the magazine Zeitschrift für Luftfahrt und Physik der Atmosphäre (Magazine for Aviation and Physics of the Atmosphere).

Berson is largely known for his scientific hot-air balloon expeditions. On 4 December 1894, he ascended to a then-record altitude of 9,155 meters aboard the hydrogen balloon Phoenix. On 10 January 1901, with artillery officer Alfred Hildebrandt (1870–1949), he travelled from Berlin to Markaryd, Sweden in a balloon, thus being the first to cross the Baltic Sea by air. On 10 January 1902, with balloonist Hermann Elias (1876–1955), he set the German long-distance ballooning record, as the two men journeyed from Berlin to Poltava in the central Ukraine (1,470 kilometers in 30 hours).

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