Sohland/Spree observatory, Public observatory in Sohland an der Spree, Germany.

The Sohland/Spree Observatory, named after Bruno H. Bürgel, stands on the Hohberg above Sohland an der Spree. Its domed building, erected by local craftsmen between 1960 and 1963, houses Newtonian reflectors, refractors, a binocular and a computer-controlled Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. A lecture hall, a moon hall, a library and a club room are part of the complex.

In 1953 Friedrich Uhmann, Edmund Grundert and Heinz Klötzke began building a Newtonian reflecting telescope in their free time in the workshop of the Schicktanz company. Local craftsmen then erected a domed building for the instrument over three years of unpaid work, and it was inaugurated on 13 October 1963. The observatory is named after the "workers' astronomer" Bruno H. Bürgel.

The observatory is run by the association of the Volks- und Schulsternwarte "Bruno-H.-Bürgel" Sohland/Spree e. V., whose members built the planet trail in 2000 and founded an archaeoastronomy group in 2008. Since 2013 this group has organised the International Day of Archaeoastronomy, held to mark the observatory's 50th anniversary. A working group also calculates, builds and restores the sundials of Sohland, Wehrsdorf and Taubenheim.

Plan your visit for clear nights when the sky is free of clouds, as this greatly improves the viewing experience. Bring warm clothing since evening observation sessions can get cool, especially during colder months.

The observatory's planet trail, laid out in 2000 by club members, models the solar system at a scale of about 1:1.4 billion. Ten bilingual German-Czech panels run from a sculpture of the Sun and planets at the observatory to Pluto at the Prinz-Friedrich-August Baude near the Czech border.