Ernst Zinner (2 February 1886 in Goldberg, Silesia – 30 August 1970) was a German astronomer and noted historian of astronomy.
His main speciality and interest, however, was Renaissance Astronomy and the history of astronomical instruments, an area in which he started working in 1925.
[1] In 1943, during the World War II, Zinner published the book Entstehung und Ausbreitung der coppernicanischen Lehre on the genesis and diffusion of the Copernican theory.
A Nazi letter noted that Zinner was associated with the German National People's Party and that he had not become a member of the NSDAP in 1938.
[2] In 1967, fearing that the Soviet Union would take it away, he sold nearly 2700 of his books and manuscripts to the San Diego State College and his personal papers to the Frankfurt University which gave him an honorary doctorate in 1961.