How Hitler’s gift to Mussolini wound up in Armenia

In 1960, at the height of the observatory’s Golden Age, a Schmidt-class 1m telescope was brought to Byurakan. An interesting historical side note is Adolf Hitler had presented the telescope to Mussolini as a gift. The aim was to establish an observatory in Italy. The project was never realized.

The legendary telescope

Mickaelian says that Hitler launched his program to develop telescopes in the 1930s and that Carl Zeiss, the famous manufacturer of optics founded in Jena, Germany, in 1846, was on board. The outbreak of WWII put an end to the program. With the defeat of Nazi Germany, this unfinished telescope, with other property, was transferred to Leningrad as spoils of war.

Mickaelian claims that Ambartsumian saw the telescope in Jena and knew that he wanted it. The telescope was finished in Leningrad and sent to Armenia.

This was the first large telescope, corresponding to international standards, installed at Byurakan, and ranks as one of the largest Schmidt-class telescopes in the world.