Insidertips
Tycho Brahe – The Man with the Golden Nose
The world famous astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was born in Denmark. For more than 20 years he used his research centre Uraniborg with the observatory Stjerneborg to observe the sky on what is nowadays the Swedish island of Hven in the Öresund. The secret of his golden nose links him to the Hanseatic city of Rostock in Mecklenburg (Germany).
Universally unique, the man with the golden nose can be found cast in bronze in Rostock. You can see him as the Tycho-Brahe-Monument with a sundial and the signs of the zodiac on the southern wall of the bank Rostocker Volks- und Raiffeisenbank situated on Glatten Aal square. The sculptor Prof. Jo Jastram, born in Mecklenburg, created this artwork according to an idea of the CRYPTONEUM Legends-Museum. Brahe’s 450. birthday in 1996 was the motivation.
Tycho Brahe was less lucky as a student of the University of Rostock during an argument in the evening of the 29. December in 1566. The dispute with a fellow Danish nobleman was allegedly over who was the best mathematician. Posterity now knows that Brahe was the better one. On this cold winter evening, a subsequent duel near the Rostocker Marienkirche cemetary resulted in Brahe losing the fight as well as a part of his nose. With Brahe having good relations to Rostock’s medical professors, he soon had a new nose made of gold and silver. The brisk explorer had to attach the prosthetics with adhesive balm all the time.
This legend is provable through a book signed by Brahe in 1598 which is kept in the University of Rostock’s library. He died at the court of the German emperor in Prague. But in Rostock, Tycho Brahe continues to live …
Text and photos: Dr. Hartmut Schmied, www.cryptoneum.de
Fotos:
(1) Tycho-Brahe-Denkmal (Ausschnitt) am Glatten Aal in Rostock, Foto: Hartmut Schmied, www.cryptoneum.de
(2) Tycho Brahe, Porträt um 1598, Foto: Hartmut Schmied, www.cryptoneum.de
(3) Ab 1580 nutzte Tycho Brahe sein Forschungszentrum Uraniborg auf der Insel Ven, Foto: Hartmut Schmied, www.cryptoneum.de
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