Karl Maximilian von Bauernfeind (28 November 1818 – 3 August 1894) was a German geodesist and civil engineer.^[1]

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Quick Facts 4th Director of the Technical University of Munich, Preceded by ...

Karl Maximilian von Bauernfeind
Grave of Karl Max von Bauernfeind at the Alter Nordfriedhof in Munich
4th Director of the Technical University of Munich
In office 1880–1889
Preceded by	August von Kluckhohn [de]
Succeeded by	Karl Haushofer
1st Director of the Polytechnische Schule München
In office 1868–1874
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Wilhelm von Beetz
Personal details
Born	(1818-11-28)28 November 1818 Arzberg, Kingdom of Bavaria
Died	3 August 1894(1894-08-03) (aged 75) Feldafing, German Empire
Nationality	German
Education	Nuremberg Polytechnic School Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

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At the age of 18, Bauernfeind studied under Georg Ohm at the Polytechnic School in Nuremberg. Two years later, he studied mathematics and physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and passed the state examination in 1841.

After gaining practical experience as an engineer during the construction of the Ludwig South-North Railway, he became associate professor of geodesy at the Königlich polytechnischen Schule in Munich in 1846 and full professor in 1851.

In 1846, Bauernfeind presented a new revision of the theory of bridge vaults, which remained authoritative for a long time. Five years later, he invented the prismatic cross (including the Bauernfeind prism), a device that soon became a valuable tool for geodesists because of its accuracy.

In 1856, his Elemente der Vermessungskunde (Elements of Surveying) was published, which became the standard work of this young science for decades. In 1857, he undertook barometric height measurements in the Alps; this was the first time that the influence of the thermal radiation of the earth's surface was clearly recognized. In 1864, he made a detailed study of atmospheric refraction.

In 1865 he became an associate member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and in 1870 was accepted as a full member. In 1873 he was elected a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

From 1868, he was the founding director of the Polytechnischen Schule München, which would later become the Technical University of Munich. There, he shaped geodesy into a scientific discipline. After relinquishing the directorship in 1874, he held this post again from 1880 to 1889.