Photo Hamburger Sternwarte, courtesy Prof. H. J. Wendker
Otto Hermann Leopold Heckmann
23 June 1901	1964 Bruce Medalist	13 May 1983

Otto Heckmann received his Ph.D. at the University of Bonn, worked at the University of Göttingen from 1927-41, and directed the Hamburg Observatory from 1941-62, after which he became the first director of the European Southern Observatory in Chile. He and his colleagues determined positions of the faint members of the Praesepe cluster and refined the H-R diagrams of several clusters. He organized the international effort to produce a third Astronomische Gesellschaft catalog to show proper motions of 180,000 stars. At Hamburg he oversaw the installation of a large Schmidt telescope. Heckmann also made significant contributions to cosmology: he found open and flat solutions to the Einstein field equations for a homogeneous, isotropic universe, and he introduced the possibility of a rotating universe. His book on cosmology rigorously developed the consequences of general relativity.

Presentation of Bruce medal
Petrie, R.M., PASP 76, 135 (1964).

Other awards
Association pour le Développement International de l’Observatoire de Nice, ADION medal, 1966
National Academy of Sciences, James Craig Watson Medal, 1961.
Paris Academy of Sciences, Janssen Medal, 1964.

Some offices held
Astronomische Gesellschaft, President, 1952-56.
International Astronomical Union, President, 1967-70.

Biographical materials
Hentschel, Klaus & Monika Renneberg: “Eine akademische Karriere. Der Astronom Otto Heckmann im Dritten Reich,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 43, 581-610 (1995).

Obituaries
Behr, A., ESO Messenger No. 33, p. 1 (1983).
Fehrenbach, C., Compte Rendue Acad. Sci., Sér. Gén, Vie Scie. 1, 6, 591-93 (1984).
Fricke, W., QJRAS 25, 374-76 (1984).
Treder, H.J., Astron. Nachr. 305, 150 (1984) [in German].
Voigt, H.H., Mitteilungen der Astronomischen Gesellschaft 60 (1983) [in German].
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Photos
History of Hamburg Observatory
Hamburg Observatory, courtesy André Heck

Named after him
Minor Planet #1650 Heckmann

More references