Strangely, one of our members at MAS, Bob Bee (of Heavens Above Binocular Guide fame) just came back from a several week tour of European sites of astronomical significance with Fred Watson and David Malin. He gave a very entertaining talk last night at our meeting and this building came up as Bob's group visited it whilst in Potsdam. As a solar observatory, it was designed originally to help prove or disprove Einstein's theory of relativity.
Bob was telling us about a bust of Einstein that always sat in the front entrance. At the beginning of WWII, the Nazis obviously wanted to remove signs of bright Jewish scientists, so the bust was hidden. In its place, a small stone from the garden was placed on the plinth instead. German translation of the name is "One Stone". The joke was planted, and apparently the Nazis never caught on. At the end of the war, the bust was returned to its rightful place, only in addition to the stone. Over time the stone has been ripped off by tourists and visitors, so every so often a new stone is brought in from the garden to replace it.
I reckon it's a brilliant looking building considering that it was designed in 1917 and was completed in 1921.
Size does not matter, yes(?).
