| Otto Heckmann | |
| Birth Date: | 23 June 1901 |
| Birth Place: | Opladen, German Empire |
| Death Place: | Regensburg, West Germany |
| Citizenship: | Prussia |
| Field: | astronomy |
| Work Institutions: | Hamburg Observatory |
| Alma Mater: | University of Bonn |
| Prizes: | James Craig Watson Medal in 1961 Bruce Medal in 1964 |
Otto Hermann Leopold Heckmann (June 23, 1901 - May 13, 1983) was a German mathematician and astronomer, director of the Hamburg Observatory from 1941 to 1962, after which he became the first director of the European Southern Observatory.[1] He actively contributed to the creation of the third issue of the Astronomische Gesellschaft Katalog. He also contributed to cosmology based on the fundamentals of general relativity, and in 1942 wrote the book Theorien der Kosmologie.
Otto Heckmann was born to Agnes Heckmann, née Grüter and Max Heckmann, a notary, a Catholic family in Opladen in 1901.[2] He studied mathematics, physics, and astronomy at the University of Bonn. He wrote a thesis in astrometry under Karl Friedrich Küstner about a star cluster in Praesepe and received a doctorate in 1925. He married in 1925 and worked for two years in the Bonn Observatory[3] with Küstner, who was involved in the planning of star catalog Astronomische Gesellschaft Katalog 2 of the Northern Hemisphere.
In 1927 Heckmann was appointed to the faculty of the University of Göttingen and worked in the Göttingen Observatory under Hans Kienle.[4] In 1929, Heckmann obtained his habilitation of astrometry in the star group Coma Berenices.
Until 1935, Heckmann measured star colors in the red and blue spectrum with photometry with a telescope costing "two years of painstaking adjustment until it began working properly". In 1935, he received the honorary title of professor. After 1937 they used a Schmidt telescope with an aperture of about 38 centimeters.
In the fall of 1937 the Hamburg University faculty finally called on Heckmann, after having been obstructed for years by the Government of the Reich, and by various agencies within the Nazi Party. On May 1, 1937 Heckmann joined the Nazi Party, encouraged by Werner Heisenberg in order to thwart members of Deutsche Physik to occupy teaching positions. However in 1938, the leader of the Reichsdozentenbund (an association of government lecturers dominated by the Nazis), refused to permit Heckmann to occupy the position arguing most of his publications were co-authored and his solo-authored publications on relativity theory represented a Jewish world view. In 1938, Heckmann participated in ideological instruction at the "Reichslager für Beamte" in Bad Tölz. The appointment to Hamburg was delayed until April 1941.[5] Finally, in 1941, Heckmann left Göttingen to direct the Hamburg Observatory, Bergedorf.After 14 years of being an extraordinary professor (assistant), he finally became officially appointed a full professor and civil servant in January 1942.[5]
From 1962 to 1969 he served as the first director general of the European Southern Observatory.
After mandatory retirement from the university in 1969, he served as president of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) from 1967 to 1970. Charles Fehrenbach (astronomer) called him the work horse of the IAU.
Following a Polish request and under the impression of German acts in Poland during World War II, he made the controversial decision to hold an Extraordinary IAU General Assembly in February 1973 in Warsaw, Poland, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Nicolaus Copernicus, shortly after the regular 1973 GA had been held in Australia.
He married Johanna Topfmeier in 1925 and they had three children together:[7] Klaus, Hildegard and Ulrike.[8] He died in his family circle in Regensburg while traveling to visit his son there.[9]
The asteroid 1650 Heckmann is named after him.
