The New International Encyclopædia/Freeden, Wilhelm Ihno Adolf von

FREEDEN, frā'den, (1822-94). A German mathematician and expert on navigation, born at Norden, Hanover, and educated at Bonn and Göttingen. He was director of the school of navigation at Elsfleth, Oldenburg, and later became established at Hamburg, where, in 1867, he founded the German Naval Observatory, which he conducted until 1875. The purpose of this institution is to promote and to facilitate maritime intercourse. It comprises the department of maritime meteorology; a bureau of nautical, meteorological, and magnetic instruments; the department of coast meteorology and signal service; and a bureau for testing chronometers. Freeden, who was a member of the Reichstag from 1871 to 1876, founded, with H. Tecklenborg-Bremen, the publication entitled Hansa, Zeitschrift für Seewesen, which he edited until 1891.