The History of the Weather Station Hohenheim

  • The first meteorological observations and registrations were made in 1836, 18 years after the foundation of the “Agricultural Experimental Station and Educational Institution Hohenheim” in 1818. Meteorological measurements for the years 1838-1860 and 1870-1872 were published in different annual reports of Württemberg.
  • Measurements for the periods 1861-1869 and 1873-1877 couldn’t be used due to measurement errors, data gaps and frequent changing of the observers.
  • Meteorology became more important since 1877, when the professor of physics Adolf Winkelmann (1877-1886) came to the Institute of Physics in Hohenheim. The weather station was reestablished and adjusted to the new requirements.
  • Beginning with 1878 the most important climatic data have been available for almost 140 years.
  • The physician Karl Mack (1888-1925) improved the climatic station Hohenheim with new instruments in 1893. The measurement of sunshine duration and automatic wind measurement were introduced.
  • In 1936 the Institute of Physics of Hohenheim was closed and the Hohenheim weather station was subordinated to the Meteorological Office Stuttgart.
  • In 1949 „The Experimental and Information Center for Agrometeorology” supervised by the Meteorological Office Stuttgart was founded.
  • In 1975 this “Agrometeorological Center” was closed and moved from Hohenheim to the location of Stuttgart-Schnarrenberg, to the new Meteorological Office Stuttgart.
  • Professor W. Rentschler, the head of the Institute of Physics, fought for its survival over the 100 years long climatic series of Hohenheim. He took over the Weather and Climatic Station Hohenheim, and installed an automatic data acquisition system connected to the Computing Center of Hohenheim.
  • In the meantime, the recording data Station was renewed three times.
  • Important to mention are the „Chronicle of the Meteorological Observations of Hohenheim for the period 1878-1977”, by Mrs. Waltraud Düwel-Hössselbarth (1982), the weather observation assistant in that time.
  • Mrs. Ingeborg Henning-Müller (meteorologist) published the next 20 years in the “Chronicle (part 2) of the Meteorological Observations of Hohenheim for the period 1978-1997 in the year 2000.
  • Since 2010, Dr. Hans-Stefan Bauer heads the operation of the weather station.