Friedrich Burmeister was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 geophysicist

Geophysics

Geophysics is the physics of the Earth and its environment in space; also the study of the Earth using quantitative physical methods. The term geophysics sometimes refers only to the geological applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational and magnetic fields; its internal structure and...

. He was director of the Munich University’s Geomagnetic Observatory

Observatory

An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed...

.

Burmeister studied mathematics and physics at the University of Munich under Hugo von Seeliger

Hugo von Seeliger

Hugo von Seeliger , also known as Hugo Hans Ritter von Seeliger, was a German astronomer, often considered the most important astronomer of his day....

 and Arnold Sommerfeld

Arnold Sommerfeld

Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and groomed a large number of students for the new era of theoretical physics...

, and he received his doctorate in 1919. Upon graduation, he became Director of the Munich Geomagnetic Observatory, of the Geomagnetism Branch of the Munich Earth Observatory, under the Geophysics Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, at the University of Munich. Due to the industrialization of Munich, operation of the observatory became more and more difficult, so, in 1927 the Munich Geomagnetic Observatory was closed and moved to a village 25 kilometers west of Munich, and it became the Maisach

Maisach

Maisach is a municipality in the district of Fürstenfeldbruck, in Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest municipality in the Fürstenfeldbruck district. It is situated 4 km north of Fürstenfeldbruck, and 25 km northwest of Munich. It is served by an S-Bahn station on the S3 towards...

 Geomagnetic Observatory. Due to the construction of a large military air base near Maisach, this facility was closed on October 31, 1937. It was moved to a small town west of Munich, and it became the Fürstenfeldbruck

Fürstenfeldbruck

Fürstenfeldbruck is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Fürstenfeldbruck. it has a population of 35,494. Since the 1930s, Fürstenfeldbruck has had an air force base....

Geomagnetic Observatory where measurements began on 1 January 1939 under Burmeister as its inaugural director. Burmeister retired as director of the observatory in 1958, whereupon Karl Wienert was appointed to the position.

Works

• Richard Bock, F. Burmeister, Friedrich Errulat: Magnetische Reichsvermesung 1935. O.T. 1. (Tabellen) (Akademie-Verlag, 1948)