Dr. Rumiana Jeleva, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria (2009–2010), earned a PhD degree in sociology at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg.
Within the precincts of the church is a 1797 sculpture of Schartz on his death-bed with the Thanjavur Maratha king Serfoji II and the missionary Guericke beside him.
Guericke was driven to make a vacuum in order to disprove Aristotle's long-held supposition that 'nature abhors a vacuum'.
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Shortly after Guericke, the physicist and chemist Robert Boyle had learned of Guericke's designs and, in 1656, in coordination with scientist Robert Hooke, built an air pump.