The history of the Geophysical Service of Austria

A brief summary will be given of the historical development of Geophysical Service of Austria, which comprises the national geomagnetic, gravimetric and seismological services as well as the “Applied Geophysics Section” located at the Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG) in Vienna in Austria. The paper presents the achievements, changes and challenges of the Department from its modest beginning in 1851 until 2020. Finally, a special emphasis is placed on the Conrad Observatory – one of the most comprehensive geophysical research observatories in the world.