450px , Otto Tetens (right) with Mataafa in Mulinuu, Samoa 1904 Otto Tetens (26 September 1865,

Rendsburg Rendsburg ( da, Rendsborg, also ''Rensborg'', nds, Rendsborg, also ''Rensborg'') is a town on the River Eider and the Kiel Canal in the central part of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) of Rendsburg-Ecke ...

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

– 15 February 1945, Teplitz-Schönau) was a German

natural scientist Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repea ...

with an

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

background.

Life

Tetens was the son of a high ranked police officer in

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ...

, Northern Germany. He went to several universities for different

natural science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

topics in

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in thr ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

. After this period, he worked at the private astronomy observatory of Miklos Konkly-Thege in Ogyalla in Hungary. In 1891 he got his Doctor degree of Natural Science. He then worked at different institutes in astronomy such as the Deutsche Seewarte,

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, and the

Observatory of Strasbourg The Observatory of Strasbourg is an astronomical observatory in Strasbourg, France. Following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the city of Strasbourg became part of the German Empire. The University of Strasbourg was refounded in 187 ...

. From 1902 to 1905 Otto Tetens worked for the Royal Society of Science of Göttingen on a climate project in

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

, then a German colony. He founded the Apia Observatory in June 1902 at Mulinuu near the main town of

Apia Apia () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Samoa, as well as the nation's only city. It is located on the central north coast of Upolu, Samoa's second-largest island. Apia falls within the political district (''itūmālō ...

. After his time in Samoa, he went back to Germany and

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

to work on his reports for the previous three years and then took an occupation at the Royal Astronomy Observatory in

, Germany. From 1909 to 1931 Tetens worked at the meteorological observatory in , Germany (south-east of

) as chief-observer. After retirement he moved to

Bad Saarow Bad Saarow ( dsb, Zarow; 1950–2002: Bad Saarow-Pieskow) is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the Oder-Spree district, in Brandenburg, Germany. The place is known for its hot springs and for its mineral-rich mud. Their healing proper ...

, some 10 km away from Lindenberg and lived at his house i
Seestrasse
at the Lake Scharmützelsee. He died in 1945 while staying at a sanatorium in Teplitz-Schönau. His wife Dorothee Heimrod, daughter of the Council of the United States in Samoa and later Switzerland, moved back to the USA in 1947 and died 1962 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Photography by Otto Tetens

During his time in Samoa, Otto Tetens took a great number of valuable and interesting photos of his time and the people of Samoa. These photos were exhibited in Germany and Samoa in 2004 and 2005.Samoa 1904, published by Christiane Niggemann 2004, Arkana-Verlag Göttingen The photo with the paramount chief Josefo Mataafa shows the way Otto Tetens was living in Samoa: as a partner on the same level, with strong adoption of Samoan culture and habits. His houses for work and living at the Mulinuu observatory were built as Samoan fales, not as German wood houses. The photo was taken in 1904 by Otto Tetens.

References

External links

''Fotos von Otto Tetens in Samoa 1902-1905''
Samoa 1904. Museum Bochum.
''Photos by Otto Tetens in Samoa 1902-1905''
Samoa 1905. Exhibition in Apia. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tetens, Otto 20th-century German astronomers German meteorologists 1865 births 1945 deaths People from the Duchy of Schleswig People from Rendsburg 19th-century German astronomers

Life

Photography by Otto Tetens

References

Further reading

External links