Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

tip. The lightning conductors were put up
on buildings more or less under Hemmer’s
personal supervision.
Hemmer mounted the first of them on 15th
April 1776, on the roof of Trippstadt Castle. On
17th July 1776, it was the turn of Schwetzingen
Palace8, a number of private residences in
Mannheim and the magazines of Heidelberg
and Mannheim (a Klauber engraving of 1782
shows the Mannheim arsenal with Hemmer’s
lightning conductors in place). They can still
be seen on the roofs of the palace, the mosque
and the Upper Waterworks at Schwetzingen,
as well as on those of the Hockenheim and
Reilingen town halls.
Meteorology
Privy Councillor Georg von Stengel had
been systematically working on weather
observation since 1758. In the palaces of
Mannheim and Schwetzingen he had fitted
out small meteorological stations for the
purpose; three times a day he recorded
the weather, the wind direction as well
as air pressure, warmth and humidity. 9
The Elector, too, appears to have owned a
few meteorological instruments which he
occasionally took with him on his travels.
After the move from Mannheim to Munich,
Georg von Stengel kept him informed about
the weather in Mannheim. In 1780, the
Elector approved the founding of a “Societas
Meteorologica Palatina” which became the
third branch of the Mannheim Academy of
Sciences; Hemmer was appointed its secretary.
The society’s aim was the precise prediction of
weather conditions for the seasons, in order to
provide valuable agricultural assistance.
The Schwetzingen Observatory
On the roof of the central block of
Schwetzingen Palace there is a small platform
with a flagpole. From the roof truss, the
unusually solid substructure of the platform
becomes evident; it looks rather excessive for
a mere flagpole. But then the massive beams
8 Kistner 1930, p. 82.
9 Kistner 1930, p. 97.
V. Science and Technology
V.
Fig. 3: Lightning conductor
on the palace’s northwest
pavilion (central block) (Photo:
Förderer).
Fig. 4: View from the Roman
water tower towards the
aqueduct and the Lower
Waterworks (Photo: Förderer).
Fig. 5: Cross section of the ice
cellar with the ice storeroom,
the vaulted passages and the
venison storeroom above (From:
Barock in Baden-Württemberg,
exhibition catalogue, Bruchsal,
27.6.-25.10.1981, Karlsruhe
1981, p. 307).
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