About Astronomie + Raumfahrt im Unterricht

Astronomie + Raumfahrt im Unterricht

Astronomie + Raumfahrt im Unterricht is the only German-language journal for astronomy didactics, published by the Friedrich Verlag in Seelze near Hanover. Appearing six times a year, it serves the teachers who bring the universe into the classroom: astronomy teachers, physics, mathematics and geography teachers covering astronomical topics, teacher-training institutions, observatories and planetariums, students, amateur astronomers and space enthusiasts. Each themed issue combines scientific articles with teaching-design contributions, current observation tips and reviews — accompanied by didactic projection slides in every issue and the annual "Der Himmelslauf im Schuljahr" poster collecting the school year's astronomical observation dates. Founded in 1964 in the GDR as Astronomie in der Schule and published by the Friedrich Verlag since 1991, it carries a publishing continuity of six decades — from the Sputnik era to the age of exoplanets and commercial spaceflight.

Overview

Astronomy occupies a peculiar place in German education: in most states it is not a standalone school subject but lives within physics, in elective courses, in project weeks, and in the extracurricular work of school observatories and astronomy clubs. Teachers who want to teach it well face a double challenge: the science moves fast — exoplanets, gravitational waves, new Solar System missions — and the didactics of conveying cosmic scales, physical concepts and observational practice to teenagers requires specialized methods. Astronomie + Raumfahrt im Unterricht addresses both needs with a concept unique in the German-language press: the combination of scientific articles and teaching contributions in a single journal.

Each issue is built around a main theme — "Facharbeiten im Astronomieunterricht" (research papers in astronomy teaching), "Nichtoptische Astronomie" (non-optical astronomy), "Orientierung am Sternhimmel" (orientation in the starry sky), "Wie groß ist der Kosmos" (how big is the cosmos) — explored through scientific essays that bring teachers up to date and didactic articles that translate the science into lessons, experiments and observation projects. The authors span the field's communities: renowned professional astronomers, teachers, and amateur astronomers, whose observational expertise often exceeds the professionals' in practical sky knowledge. Current observation tips tell readers what to show their classes tonight; book and software reviews guide the teaching-material purchases. The projection slides enclosed in each issue — ready-made visuals for the classroom overhead or beamer — and the annual sky-calendar poster make the journal a teaching toolkit, not just a reading journal.

History

The journal was founded in 1964 under the title Astronomie in der Schule by Helmut Bernhard of the Bautzen school observatory "Johannes Franz" — the observatory that served as the editorial seat until 1981, followed by the public and school observatory in Sohland an der Spree. The founding belonged to the Sputnik moment: the 1957 satellite launch and Yuri Gagarin's 1961 spaceflight had electrified public interest in astronomy and spaceflight, and in 1959 the GDR had introduced astronomy as a compulsory school subject — the institutional foundation the journal served. It appeared in the Volk und Wissen Verlag of East Berlin, publishing teacher-training contributions, didactic works on teaching practice, and education-policy essays for the socialist school system.

Reunification brought the journal west: in 1991 the Friedrich Verlag of Seelze — the specialist publisher for educational journals — took over the title, and since 1996 it has appeared as Astronomie + Raumfahrt im Unterricht, adding spaceflight to its remit. The editorial leadership evolved with the field: from 2000 to 2014 the Leipzig astronomy didactician Klaus Lindner edited the journal, joined in 2011 by Oliver Schwarz, professor of physics and director of the University of Siegen's observatory, who became sole editor in 2014; Jürgen Hamel has served as editor-in-chief since 2014. Through the decades, the journal documented astronomy's revolutions for the classroom: the Space Age's planetary exploration, the Hubble era's deep fields, the exoplanet boom, and the new spaceflight age — always with the didactic question of how to make each development teachable. The Friedrich Verlag itself became part of the Klett Gruppe, securing the title within one of Germany's largest educational publishers.

Coverage and Content

The journal's content follows the astronomy-teaching year. The themed issues provide the deep treatment: the science articles establish the factual foundation — stellar evolution, cosmology, planetary science, spaceflight technology — at a level that respects teachers as scientifically literate readers, while the didactic articles offer lesson designs, student experiments, calculation exercises and observation projects matched to the curriculum levels (grades 8-13). The observation tips are the journal's most practical feature: what planets, Moon phases, meteor showers and deep-sky objects are visible in the coming weeks, with the finder charts and timing details teachers need to plan evening observations with their classes.

The review sections cover the teaching-material market: textbooks, popular-science books, planetarium software, apps and telescopes, assessed for classroom suitability. The annual "Der Himmelslauf im Schuljahr" poster — all the astronomically relevant dates for student observations in calendar overview — supports the long-term planning of observation projects across the school year. The projection slides in each issue provide ready-made classroom visuals on the issue's theme. Across all of it runs the journal's distinctive editorial stance: astronomy as the subject that teaches scientific thinking through wonder — the cosmic scales that humble, the observational practice that disciplines, and the spaceflight narrative that inspires.

Organization and Ownership

Astronomie + Raumfahrt im Unterricht is published by the Friedrich Verlag GmbH of Seelze (Im Brande 17, 30926 Seelze) — the specialist publisher for pedagogical journals, now part of the Klett Gruppe, whose portfolio spans the school subjects' leading didactic journals. The editor is Oliver Schwarz, professor of physics at the University of Siegen and director of its observatory, succeeding Klaus Lindner; Jürgen Hamel serves as editor-in-chief. The author network — professional astronomers from universities and research institutes, teachers, amateur astronomers — gives the journal its characteristic blend of scientific authority and classroom practicality.

Commercially, the journal follows the educational-press model: subscriptions for individuals (with reduced rates for students, pupils and trainees), institutional subscriptions for schools, observatories and teacher-training colleges, and the combination subscriptions (print + online) through which the publisher serves the digital classroom. Advertising is modest, from the telescope, planetarium and educational-material suppliers whose products serve the astronomy-teaching community. The ISSN 1437-8639 identifies the title in the journal databases, where its six-decade run — from the GDR's school-astronomy journal to the reunified Germany's astronomy-didactics forum — represents one of the longest continuous publishing histories in educational media.

Digital Presence

The journal's digital home is the Friedrich Verlag's portal at friedrich-verlag.de, where the title is presented with subscription options, issue previews and the digital editions. The publisher's online shop handles the print+online combination subscriptions, and the e-library partnerships (including the utb elibrary's journal platform) extend the title's digital availability to academic readers. The current issue (11/2025 in the archive listing) confirms the publishing rhythm.

The digital strategy follows the educational publisher's logic: the print issues provide the curated, themed deep reading with the slides and poster that teachers file and reuse for years, while the publisher's portal delivers the subscription services, the digital editions and the supplementary materials. After six decades — from Helmut Bernhard's Bautzen school observatory through the GDR's Volk und Wissen to the Klett-group Friedrich Verlag — Astronomie + Raumfahrt im Unterricht remains what it set out to be: the only German-language journal where the science of the universe and the art of teaching it meet, issue after issue, for the teachers who show their students the sky.