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Wilhelm Julius Foerster (16 December 1832 – 18 January 1921) was a Germanastronomer. His name can also be writtenFörster, but is usually written "Foerster" even in most German sources where 'ö' is otherwise used in the text.
A native ofGrünberg,Silesia, he studied at theUniversity of Berlin andRheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn,[1] and worked asJohann Franz Encke's assistant. In 1860, he co-discoveredasteroid62 Erato withOskar Lesser, the first co-discovery on record. He became professor of astronomy at theUniversity of Berlin in 1863.[1] After Encke's death in 1865, he became director of theBerlin Observatory and served in this position until 1904. Foerster also taught the popular geologist Alfred Wegener astronomy.
In 1868 he was appointed director of the commission established by theNorth German Confederation, and continued from 1871 by theGerman Empire, for the determination of standards of measurement. In this capacity, he superintended the reorganization of the German system of weights and measures on the metric basis. He was elected president of theInternational Bureau of Weights and Measures in 1891.[1]
In 1888–89, Foerster co-founded theUrania in Berlin, an institution for astronomical education that reached out to the wider public. Foerster continued to be interested in popularizing the natural sciences.[2]
In 1892, he assisted in the founding of theGerman Society for Ethical Culture (GSEC;German:Deutsche Gesellschaft für ethische Kultur),[1] in whichAlbert Einstein also participated. He was also a member of theGerman Peace Society (German:Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft), and resisted the rise in nationalism brought about by the outbreak ofWorld War I. While he was among the 93 German intellectuals in signing theAufruf an die Kulturwelt manifesto in support of the war, Foerster was one of only four intellectuals to sign theAufruf an die Europäer counter-manifesto (the others wereAlbert Einstein, the philosopherOtto Buek, and its author, the physiologistGeorg Friedrich Nicolai).
| 62 Erato | September 14, 1860 | MPC[A] |
| A withOskar Lesser | ||
|---|---|---|
The asteroid6771 Foerster is named after him, and so is theWilhelm-Foerster-Sternwarte (Wilhelm Foerster Observatory; IAU code 544).
