Karl Maximilian von Bauernfeind

Karl Maximilian von Bauernfeind (28 November 1818 – 3 August 1894) was a German geodesist and civil engineer.[1]

Karl Maximilian von Bauernfeind
Grave of Karl Max von Bauernfeind at the Alter Nordfriedhof in Munich
4th Director of the Technical University of Munich
In office
1880–1889
Preceded byAugust von Kluckhohn
Succeeded byKarl Haushofer
1st Director of the Polytechnische Schule München
In office
1868–1874
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byWilhelm von Beetz
Personal details
Born(1818-11-28)November 28, 1818
Arzberg, Kingdom of Bavaria
DiedAugust 3, 1897(1897-08-03) (aged 78)
Feldafing, German Empire
NationalityGerman
EducationNuremberg Polytechnic School
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Education

At the age of 18, Bauernfeind studied under Georg Ohm at the Polytechnic School in Nuremberg. Two years later, he studied mathematics and physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and passed the state examination in 1841.

Career

After gaining practical experience as an engineer during the construction of the Ludwig South-North Railway, he became associate professor of geodesy at the Königlich polytechnischen Schule in Munich in 1846 and full professor in 1851.

In 1846, Bauernfeind presented a new revision of the theory of bridge vaults, which remained authoritative for a long time. Five years later, he invented the prismatic cross (including the Bauernfeind prism), a device that soon became a valuable tool for geodesists because of its accuracy.

In 1856, his Elemente der Vermessungskunde (Elements of Surveying) was published, which became the standard work of this young science for decades. In 1857, he undertook barometric height measurements in the Alps; this was the first time that the influence of the thermal radiation of the earth's surface was clearly recognized. In 1864, he made a detailed study of atmospheric refraction.

In 1865 he became an associate member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and in 1870 was accepted as a full member. In 1873 he was elected a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

From 1868, he was the founding director of the Polytechnischen Schule München, which would later become the Technical University of Munich. There, he shaped geodesy into a scientific discipline. After relinquishing the directorship in 1874, he held this post again from 1880 to 1889.

References

  1. von Voit, Carl (28 March 1895). "Nachruf - Carl Maximilian von Bauernfeind" (PDF). Sitzungsberichte der mathematisch-physikalischen Classe der k. b. Akademie der Wissenschaften. Band XXV. Jahrgang 1895.: 161–170.
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