Education
He has studied galaxies with the Schmidt telescope at the Karl Schwarzschild Observatory in Tautenburg, Germany.
He has studied galaxies with the Schmidt telescope at the Karl Schwarzschild Observatory in Tautenburg, Germany.
A few sources give his first name wrongly as Freimuth. In 1995 he retired, but continues to work as a freelancer for the observatory. As a by-product of his work, he has discovered numerous asteroids (519, as of July 2006).
The research on asteroids had to be done in his spare time, as the search for small objects was not considered prestigious enough by the German Democratic Republic research managers.
During the German Democratic Republic regime, Börngen restricted himself to politically neutral names for his asteroids, such as topics related to Thuringia or famous scientists and composers. Examples include 2424 Tautenburg, 3181 Ahnert, 3245 Jensch, or 3941 Haydn.
After the German reunification, he chose systematically historical, cultural, scientific and geographical namings, and at times honoured amateur astronomers. Other names include references to resistance fighters against the Nazi suppression, or document a religious interest.
The International Astronomical Union honoured him with asteroid 3859 Börngen, which was discovered by East. Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory, Arizona.