Friedrich Theodor von Schubert (30 October 1758 – 21 October 1825) was a German astronomer and geographer.

Life and works

Born in

Helmstedt Helmstedt (; Eastphalian: ''Helmstidde'') is a town on the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. The historic university and Hanseatic city conserves an important monumental heritage of ...

, his father, Johann Ernst Schubert, was a professor of theology and abbot of

Michaelstein Abbey Michaelstein Abbey (Kloster Michaelstein) is a former Cistercian monastery, now the home of the ''Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein - Musikinstitut für Aufführungspraxis'' ("Michaelstein Abbey Foundation - Music Institute for Performance"), near th ...

. Theodor likewise studied theology, but didn't like it. He traveled abroad, first to Sweden in 1779. He then went to

Bartelshagen Bartelshagen is a village and a former Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the Vorpommern-Rügen district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Since 1 January 2014, it is part of the municipality Saal, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saal. Referen ...

, where he became the tutor of the children of Major von Cronhelm. Since the major was fond of mathematics and astronomy, Theodor had to study these himself to be able to teach those subjects. He then married the daughter of the major, Luise Friederike von Cronhelm. Afterwards, he traveled to

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, again as a house teacher. He moved on to

Haapsalu Haapsalu () is a seaside resort town located on the west coast of Estonia. It is the administrative centre of Lääne County, and on 1 January 2020 it had a population of 9,375. Description Haapsalu has been well known for centuries for its w ...

, teaching mathematics to young noblemen as a preparation for a life as an officer. In 1785 he became an assistant of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

as a geographer, and by June 1789 he was a full member. In 1803, he became head of the astronomical observatory of the Academy. In 1805, he was a member of the failed Russian expedition to China, together with his son. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 1812. He not only produced some scientific works, but also helped popularize astronomy. Between 1788 and 1825, he published the ''St. Petersburger Kalender'', and between 1808 and 1818 the ''St. Petersburger astronomischen Taschenkalender''. He also wrote for the newspapers and for the German language ''St. Petersburger Zeitung'', which he edited from 1810 until his death. His son

Friedrich von Schubert Theodor Friedrich von Schubert (1789–1865) was a Russian general and scientist of Baltic German descent. Born in Saint Petersburg as the son of astronomer Theodor von Schubert. When he was sixteen years old, he accompanied his father on the R ...

was a general in the Russian army and explorer. The lunar crater

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

is named after him.

Bibliography

* ''Populäre Astronomie''. 3 volumes, Petersburg (1808–10) * ''Theoretische Astronomie''. 3 volumes, Petersburg 1798. Translated in French as ''Traite d'astronomie theorique'', published in 1834 by Perthes & Besser. * ''Astronomische Bestimmung der Längen u. Breiten''. Petersburg 1806 (reprinted, and translated in Russian) * ''Geschichte der Astronomie''. Petersburg 1804 * ''Vermischte Schriften''. 7 volumes, Tübingen 1823–26 (4 volumes) and Leipzig 1840 (3 volumes).

References

Biography
from Pierer's ''Universal-Lexikon'', 4th edition 1857–1865 (in German)
Biography
from the ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'', 1891 (in German, at

Wikisource Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project (each instance usually rep ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Schubert, Theodor Von 1758 births 1825 deaths People from Helmstedt 19th-century German astronomers 19th-century astronomers from the Russian Empire Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Historians of astronomy Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences