Walther Bauersfeld (23 January 1879 – 28 October 1959) was a German engineer.
He was employed by theCarl Zeiss Jena, who, on a suggestion by the German astronomerMax Wolf, started work on the first projectionplanetarium in 1912. This work was stopped by military needs duringWorld War I, but resumed after the war. Bauersfeld completed the first planetarium, known as theZeiss I model in 1923, and it was initially placed on the roof of a Zeiss building in the corporate headquarters town ofJena.[1] This model projected 4,900 stars, and was limited to showing the sky only from Jena'slatitude. Subsequently, Bauersfeld developed the Model 2 with 8,956 stars, and full latitude capability. Over a dozen were installed beforeWorld War II again suspended planetarium work. These inter-war planetariums were constructed inBerlin andDüsseldorf in Germany, as well asRome,Paris,Chicago,Los Angeles andNew York. TheZeiss I planetarium in Jena is also considered the firstgeodesic dome derived from theicosahedron, 26 years beforeBuckminster Fuller reinvented and popularized this design.
Bauersfeld was awarded theFranklin Institute'sElliott Cresson Medal in 1933 and theWerner von Siemens Ring in 1941.
Post-war, the Zeiss firm, like Germany, divided in two. Bauersfeld remained with the core firm in Jena,East Germany, where after 1953 he developed theZKP-1 (Zeisskleinplanetarium, the Zeiss Small Planetarium #1). This was intended for small dome planetariums, and while it had latitude change capabilities, the operator had to turn a hand crank to accomplish this. TheZKP-2 added a motor for latitude change. Bauersfeld retired shortly after the ZKP-2 was introduced.
He died on 28 October 1959 inHeidenheim an der Brenz.
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