A brief history of the Argelander-Instituts für Astronomie

Astronomy was really established in Bonn with the nomination of Argelander (1836). He founded the "Sternwarte" at the "Poppelsdorfer Allee", which started operating in 1845. Beginning in 1952, its telescopes were relocated to the new observatory at the "Hoher List" in the Eifel range. With the possibilities of radioastronomy (establishment of the radiotelescope at the "Stockert") and of space research, new disciplines developed leading to the foundation of the "Radioastronomisches Institut" (1962), the "Institut für Astrophysik und Extraterrestrische Forschung" (1964) and the "Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie" (1966). In 1973 all institutes moved into the building shown above. As of January 2006, the three university institutes merged under the name Argelander Institute for Astronomy. The Hoher List Observatory has been disjointed from the AIfA on the 30.06.2012 and is closed down.