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 Koenigsberg in Bavaria
Regiomontanus |
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Regiomontanus, as he was called according to the latinised name of his birthplace, the famous scholar was born on 6th June 1436 in Koenigsberg. His talent was recognized very early. At the age of eleven Regiomontanus began his studies at the University of Leipzig. Later he went to Vienna at the chair of Georg of Purbach. At the age of 21 he held a Master’s degree and lectured at the University of Vienna at last.
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In 1461 he went to Padua, Venice and Rome. In Rome he finally wrote his famous work on trigonometry.
In the year 1468 he left Rome and went to Hungary were he lived at court of the Hungarian king for several years. In 1471 Regiomontanus settled in Nuernberg at last. Here he founded the first observatory in his time and a printing house where many of his works were printed and published. Regiomontanus turned out to be the most famous astronomer of the time.
In 1475 Pope Sixtus IV asked him to come to Italy again to work on the calendar reform. Regiomontanus died on 6th July 1476 in Rome. He was only 40 years old.
Regiomontanus’ works on trigonometry were pioneering. He improved algebra, introduced Arabic numerals and symbols and made the decimal system perfect. |
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Local History of Koenigsberg |
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Famous Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa built a fortress on the castle hill in the 12th century. That castle formed the nucleus of the later city of Koenigsberg.
During Thirty Years’ War Koenigsberg belonged to these European cities which had more than 2,000 inhabitants (that were only 7% of the cities in Europe at that time).
Also during Thirty Years’ War the city was plundered and destroyed several times. Around the year 1700 Koenigsberg people began to reconstruct the city step by step. Therefore the city centre looks very homogeneous today. Typical are the very picturesque half-timbered houses.
In 1848, the year of the first democratic revolution in Germany a so-called "Buergerwehr” was founded in Koenigsberg. It is the only one still existing in Germany today.
Famous sons of Koenigsberg: Regiomontanus, Friedrich Heinrich Realm Count of Seckendorff, Wolfgang Carl Briegel, Balthasar Duering, Ernst Friedrich III Carl Duke of Saxonia-Hildburghausen, Paul Count of Waldersee. |
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