Johann Georg von Soldner

Johann Georg von Soldner (16 July 1776 in Feuchtwangen, Ansbach – 13 May 1833 in Bogenhausen, Berlin) was a German physicist, mathematician and astronomer, first in Berlin and later in 1808 in Munich.

He was born in Feuchtwangen in Ansbach as the son of the farmer Johann Andreas Soldner. He received two years' teaching at the Feuchtwanger Latin School.

Soon Soldner's mathematical talent was discovered: Soldner managed to measure the fields of his father by self-built instruments. At night, he studied maths textbooks and maps. Since he never had been to high school, he pursued private studies of languages and mathematics in Ansbach, in 1796.

In 1797, he came to Berlin, where he worked under the astronomer Johann Elert Bode as a geometer, and was involved with astronomical and geodetic studies. From 1804-1806, he was the leader of a team which worked on the survey of Ansbach.

In 1808, he was invited by Joseph von Utzschneider to Munich to work on trigonometry for the newly formed Tax Survey Commission. For his services to the theoretical basis for the Bavarian land survey Soldner was knighted. 1815 he was appointed as an astronomer and he was a member of the Academy of Sciences at Munich. In 1816, Soldner was appointed as the director of the observatory in Bogenhausen in Munich, which was built from 1816-1818 due to the co-operation of Utzschneider, Georg Friedrich von Reichenbach and Joseph von Fraunhofer.

Beginning with 1828, Soldner was unable to completely fulfill his duties because of a liver disease. As a result, his young assistant Johann von Lamont (under his supervision) lead the operations of the observatory. Soldner died in Bogenhausen and was buried in the cemetery on the western side of the St. Georg church.

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