BornKrefeld, (Nordrhein-Westfalen), Germany, 24 August 1876
DiedKiel, Germany, 18 February 1939
Carl Wirtz, the astronomer, measured magnitudes and positions of nebulae, and made many observations of Solar System objects. He was among the first to study the redshift-magnitude and redshift-diameter diagrams of nebulae (galaxies), which is why Allan Sandage, the pupil and successor of Edwin Hubble , called Wirtz “the European Hubble without telescope.”
Wirtz studied astronomy at Bonn University (1895–1898). After that he served as an assistant at the Wien-Ottakrieg Observatory (1899–1901), as a lecturer in the Hamburg School of Navigation (1901–1902), and as an astronomer-observer and professor at the Strasbourg Observatory (1901–1915). In 1905 he married Helene Borchardt. He served in the German army (1916–1918). In 1919 Wirtz was appointed as an extraordinary professor of the Kiel Observatory, and in the years 1934–1936 he served as the director of that observatory.
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Selected Reference
Theis, C., S. Deiters, C. Einsel, and F. Hohmann (1999). “Hans Rosenberg und Carl Wirtz.” Sterne und Weltraum 38, no. 2: 126–130.
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Joeveer, M. (2014). Wirtz, Carl Wilhelm. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_1491
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