He was employed by the
Carl Zeiss Jena, who, on a suggestion by the German astronomer
Max Wolf, started work on the first projection
planetarium in 1912. This work was stopped by military needs during
World War I, but resumed after the war. Bauersfeld completed the first planetarium, known as the
Zeiss I model in 1923, and it was initially placed on the roof of a Zeiss building in the corporate headquarters town of
Jena. This model projected 4,900 stars, and was limited to showing the sky only from Jena's
latitude. Subsequently, Bauersfeld developed the Model 2 with 8,956 stars, and full latitude capability. Over a dozen were installed before
World War II again suspended planetarium work. These inter-war planetariums were constructed in
Berlin and
Düsseldorf in Germany, as well as
Rome,
Paris,
Chicago,
Los Angeles and
New York. The
Zeiss I planetarium in Jena is also considered the first
geodesic dome derived from the
icosahedron, 26 years before
Buckminster Fuller reinvented and popularized this design. Bauersfeld was awarded the
Franklin Institute's
Elliott Cresson Medal in 1933 and the
Werner von Siemens Ring in 1941. Post-war, the Zeiss firm, like Germany, divided in two. Bauersfeld remained with the core firm in Jena,
East Germany, where after 1953 he developed the
ZKP-1 (Zeisskleinplanetarium, the Zeiss Small Planetarium #1). This was intended for small dome planetariums, and while it had latitude change capabilities, the operator had to turn a hand crank to accomplish this. The
ZKP-2 added a motor for latitude change. Bauersfeld retired shortly after the ZKP-2 was introduced. He died on 28 October 1959 in
Heidenheim an der Brenz. == Legacy ==