It was discovered on 18 September 1938, by German astronomer Alfred Bohrmann at Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany, and later named after ARI-astronomer Karl Heinemann (1898–1970).
[10] In October 2016, a rotational lightcurve of Heinemann was obtained from photometric observations by French astronomer Matthieu Conjat.
Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 22.96 hours with a brightness variation of 0.36 magnitude (U=2+).
[4][5][6][7] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0653 and a diameter of 21.68 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.9.
[3] This minor planet was named after Karl Heinemann (1898–1970), German astronomer and long-time staff member at the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut.