Named in honor of Wilhelm Julius Foerster (1832-1921), director of the Berlin Observatory for nearly 40 years. He made measurements of star positions and in 1860 was a codiscoverer of (62) Erato. He was a strong campaigner for the organized rapid and reliable telegraphic dissemination of urgent astronomical news and arranged for the establishment of the Astronomische Zentralstelle in Kiel. In 1889 he founded the Berlin “Urania”, the first large public observatory, equipped with a 0.30-m refractor. This minor planet is being named on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the “Wilhelm-Foerster-Sternwarte e.V.”. Citation prepared in part by W. Tost.