Funding for a new Observatory was approved in August 1821, on the condition J. G. Repsold built the instruments. The new observatory was completed in 1825 next to the Millerntor. However, in 1830 Repsold died while fighting a fire (he was also a Hamburg fireman) and the City of Hamburg voted to take over and continue running the observatory in 1833. First director became Charles Rümker who had accompanied Thomas Brisbane to build the first Australian observatory at Parramatta. Christian August Friedrich Peters became assistant director in 1834. In 1856 Rümker's son George became director of the observatory.