Biographical Notes
ADOLF SCHMIDT was born on July 23rd 1860 in Breslau (today Wrozlaw/Poland). The family had four children.
ADOLF SCHMIDT attended a high school in Breslau which he left with
his leaving certificate to take up studies in mathematics, physics, English
and French at the university of Breslau. He graduated at the age of 22 summa
cum laude, with a dissertation in pure mathematics, entitled ''On the Theory
of the CREMONA Transformations, Especially Those of Fourth Order''.
He passed the government examination for a teaching qualification at Breslau
University not only in mathematics and physics, but also following a special
interest in languages, in English and French. After probationary years in
Breslau and Gotha he took up a permanent position as gymnasium teacher at
the Ernestinum gymnasium in Gotha in 1885, where he was later also nominated
as a professor.
In 1902 he was appointed successor to MAX ESCHENHAGEN
as director of the Potsdam Magnetic Observatory. He led this observatory
very successfully during the following 27 years and developed it to one of
the best known magnetic observatories in the world.
In 1928 he retired and returned to Gotha, were he continued his scientific work, where he died on 17 October 1944.