Dr. Karl Remeis
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The founding father of the observatory was Dr. Karl Remeis (Sept. 9, 1837 – May 25, 1882), a wealthy lawyer and amateur astronomer from Bamberg. He received his doctorate from the faculty of law of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg on December 21, 1863 (“Die Wiederaufnahme im Strafverfahren.” – Erlangen: Deichert, 1864), and worked at the district court in Bamberg until 1873. Following the death of his mother, he went to Italy to pursue his studies on Natural Sciences.
When he died, Remeis left his whole fortune to the city of Bamberg, designating 400000 marks for the building and maintainance of an observatory in Bamberg. The city of Bamberg established a foundation in 1883 and bought the grounds on Stephansberg. The architect Max Ißleiber planned the observatory according to the observatory in Straßburg, the most modern observatory at the time. Erected by the master builder Georg Hofbauer of Bamberg, the observatory was opend on October 24, 1889. Already in 1886, Dr. Ernst Hartwig was appointed as the first director and leading astronomer.