Sundials in
Berlin and around

Sundials at Planetaria and Observatories in Berlin

The planetarium at the Insulaner was built in 1965 as an addition to the observatory at the top of the hill, which was inaugurated two years earlier. Planetarium and observatory were the result of the division of Berlin, because after the wall there were no astronomical buildings in the West part of the city until then.

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Sundial at the planetarium at the Insulaner, Berlin Schöneberg, fall 1995
The image above, scanned from a picture taken with Pentax Z-20 is showing the sundial at the side yard of the planetarium. Within the reflection of the front building of the planetarium you can see the mirroring fassade of the 1990 built library rondell which is connected with the building on the right edge of the picture. Left to the photo there is the Munsterdamm. The picture is referencing to a front view at the home site of the Wilhelm Foerster Observatory, to which the planetarium and the sundial belongs to.

This was my first sundial picture of this collection. The sundial belonged to a school in Schöneberg, but because of vandalism it was replaced to its current location. The creator of this concrete-and-steel-sundial is the same artist who built the sundial in the Rudow Nordpark and at the Riesengebirgsschule in Schöneberg.

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Sundial at the Zeiss Großplanetarium, Berlin Prenzlauer Berg, spring 1997

Even the Zeiss Großplanetarium of the Archenhold observatory has a sundial. If you're driving on the Prenzlauer Allee you will pass it very closely. The rough, sphere shaped granite clock is standing in the middle of a front yard, where additional but unnumbered arcs for reading the time are inlayed. At the border of the place you can find the following translated engravings:

The engraving on the clock means translated: "be aware of your time".

The picture was taken with a Minolta Vectris 25 at May the 12th 1997 at around 18:15h MEST (17:15h MET, which is still not readable on the dial anymore). For the GIF above the graffiti was removed electronically. The GIF is referencing to a 60kByte 380x560 JPEG of a photo with a sideview of the sundial with the dome of the Planetarium in the background. This was built in 1987 for the 750-year-anniversary of Berlin. In the neighborhood there is the city train station Prenzlauer Allee.

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