Leopold Prowe

Prowe compiled a comprehensive German language biography of Copernicus, titled Nicolaus Coppernicus.

The activities then continued in a society for science and arts, called Coppernicus-Verein für Wissenschaft und Kunst zu Thorn, headed by Prowe for many years.

Prowe researched the local archives of Copernicus' birthplace, as well as those of other towns in Prussia where the astronomer had worked and lived, especially Frauenburg.

He also travelled to Krakau, then part of Austria,[2] to Italian cities, and to Upsala in Sweden, where documents and books owned by the astronomer and scientist Copernicus had been abducted to in later wars.

Prowe's biography is still considered a masterwork: Copernicus' nationality has since long been a source of argument between Germans and Poles.