This article should be merged with Geodesy and History of Geodesy

The German terminus Erdmessung means geodesy on a global scale (Erde = earth).

In the late 19th century, the foundation of a Central Bureau of international Geodesy (Zentralbüro für die Internationale Erdmessung) was initiated by Austria-Hungary and Germany. One of its most important goals was to derive an international ellipsoid and a gravity formula which should be optimal not only for Europe but for the whole world. The Zentralbüro was an early predecessor of the IAG (internat. Union for Geodesy).

Most of the needed theories were derived by the German geodesist F.R. Helmert in his famous books "Die mathematischen und physikalischen Theorien der höheren Geodäsie" (1880). Helmert also derived the first global ellipsoid in 1906 with an accuracy of 100 meters (0.002 percent of the Earth's radii). The US geodesist Hayford derived an global ellipsoid in ~1910, based on intercontinental isostasy and an accuracy of 200 m. It was adopted by the IUGG as "international ellipsoid 1924".

Some wellknown German spoken University institutes engaged in "Erdmessung" are:

• The Institut für Erdmessung in Hannover, Germany - which its speciality of astro-geodetic zenith cameras and Geoid computations for many european countries
• The Institut für Theoretische Geodäsie in Bonn (Geodesy, Radio astronomy and GPS)
• The Institut für Astronomische und Physikalische Geodäsie in Munich, southern Germany.
• The Austrian Institute for Geodesy and Geophysics at the TU Vienna (astro-geological geoid, IGS and VLBI)
• The Swiss Geodetic Institute at the ETH Zürich (geophysical geodesy, GPS etc.)