In 1716 Wagner became Observator and Member of the Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. From 1720 he was Professor for Mathematics at the Gymnasium in Hildburghausen, until it was closed in 1727. On 16 December 1722 his son Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Wagner was born in Hildburghausen.[1] In 1730 Wagner became Professor of Architecture at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, and in 1735 Librarian of the Academy of Sciences. In 1740 after the death of Christfried Kirch he was named as his successor as Director of Berlin Observatory - a post which he held for the rest of his life. The almanac calculation at the Observatory am Observatorium took so much of his time that his son undertook some of his work in teaching at the Akademie der Künste.[2] Wagner died unmarried in December 1745 from a heart attack.