Bruno Jakob Thüring was born in Warmensteinach in the German Fichtel Mountains on 7 September 1905. From 1924 to 1928, he studied philosophy, followed by astronomy, mathematics and physics, in Bamberg, Erlangen and Munich. He earned his doctorate in Munich in 1928, followed by a habilitation (post-doctoral qualification) he received in 1935 from Heidelberg University. In the same year, he was named “Observator der Sternwarte München” (“Observator” at the Munich observatory). Starting in 1937, he also lectured at the University of Munich. From 1940 to 1945, he was chair of astronomy at the University of Vienna and director of the university’s observatory. After 1945, he lived a private scholar’s life in Karlsruhe, where he died on 6 May 1989.
Bruno Thüring was a student of Hugo Dingler's and an active National Socialist. His work is of particular interest in respect to the debate about the special theory of relativity that raged in Germany and Austria in the 1920s and afterwards.
The collection includes approx. 3.5 running metres, containing manuscripts, letters and biographical documents as well as special prints of his own works and those of others. The documents have been roughly sorted by chronology and broad topics.