Johann Schütte

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Johann Schütte (right) with August von Parseval , 1929

Johann Schütte , also called Jan Schütte , (born February 26, 1873 in Osternburg , now part of Oldenburg ; † March 29, 1940 in Dresden- Weißer Hirsch ; full name Johann Heinrich Carl Schütte ) was a German shipbuilding engineer , professor of shipbuilding , Airship designer and entrepreneur .

family

The paternal grandfather, Gerhard Schütte (1810–1871), farmer, hayman and gardener from Hatten in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg , married Rebecca Magdalena née Meyer (1808–1865) in Easterburg in 1840. The maternal grandfather, farmer Hermann Bernhard Schütte (1821–1849) from Astede near Neuchâtel , married Anna Maria, born in Bockhorn in 1845, Erck (1820–1891) from Timmel , East Friesland. Schütte's father, Heinrich Wilhelm Ludwig Schütte, Chief Commissioner and Accountant at the Grand Ducal Court in Oldenburg (1845–1917), married Christine Sophie nee Schütte (1846–1902) in 1869. His older sister was Anna Schütte (1869–1917).

Johann Schütte married Henriette Bertha Adele, née Addicks, in 1898, daughter of the Bremerhaven shipowner Heinrich Addicks. Their children together were Wilhelm Schütte (1899-1924), an economist, and Dorothea (born 1901), married Temmler. Schütte had two grandchildren: Jandirk Schütte, pharmacist, and Monika Kuhn-Temmler, managing director.

Johann Schütte belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church .

education

Johann Schütte attended the Oberrealschule Oldenburg from 1879 , which he left with the Abitur in 1892 . From 1892 to 1898 he completed a degree in shipbuilding at the Technical University of Charlottenburg . During his studies he joined the Guilelmia country team . There he passed the construction manager examination ( first state examination ) with distinction in 1898 . After the academic degree of graduate engineer (equivalent to the First State Examination) was introduced in 1900 , Schütte subsequently received this degree in 1902.

Professional background

Shipbuilders

NDL shipbuilding research institute
Tow car in the NDL research institute

In 1897, shortly before the end of his studies, Schütte got a job at North German Lloyd (NDL). After he had proven in 1899 that the express steamer Kaiser Friedrich , which had just been delivered , could not reach the contractually agreed speed due to its unfavorable shape of the rear of the ship, the NDL commissioned him to set up a tug model test station in Bremerhaven . This facility had the task of determining the hydrodynamically most favorable forms for the ocean-going ships of the NDL. The laboratory was already in 1900 as thanks to the commitment Schütte's Department of Maritime Technology attempts inaugurated. His scientific research, which he was able to carry out as the head of this institution, which was unique in the German Reich at the time, quickly made Johann Schütte an internationally recognized scientific authority on questions of resistance and speed in shipbuilding. In addition to his work at NDL, he was involved in a leading position in the design and construction of the first German cable layer . During this time, Schütte also advanced to become the technical adviser to the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, Friedrich August . In this capacity he rebuilt his steam yacht Lensahn in 1903 . He also invented a pallograph for measuring ship vibrations and the so-called Schütte boiler , a special boiler for smaller ships and boats, for which he was awarded a gold medal at the St. Louis World Exhibition in 1904 .

In May of the same year Johann Schütte was appointed professor "for theory of ships and ship design" at the newly founded Technical University of Danzig due to his scientific achievements by Kaiser Wilhelm II . There he worked successfully as a university lecturer from 1904 to 1922.

Airship builder and entrepreneur

His great efforts to establish hydrodynamic research by setting up a research institute for shipbuilding at the Technical University of Danzig , however, failed at the end of 1907 due to the high costs. This failure forced him to reorient himself professionally and scientifically. In addition, in mid-February 1909 he had fallen out of favor with the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, who was influential in the shipbuilding industry and with large shipping companies, for private reasons. After the accident of the Zeppelin airship LZ 4 in Echterdingen at the beginning of August 1908 , Schütte became more intensely involved in airship travel . As early as the autumn of 1908, he constructed his own airship, which was characterized, among other things, by its aerodynamic shape and its wooden frame. In the winter of 1908/1909 he began to realize his construction. In the course of the spring of 1909, Schütte was able to win the aviation patron Karl Lanz , owner of Mannheimer Landmaschinenwerke Heinrich Lanz AG , as a financially strong investor for his project. When both founded the company Luftschiffbau Schütte-Lanz , based in Mannheim-Rheinau , at the beginning of April 1909 , the decisive prerequisites were in place for Schütte to be able to start building his airship as early as the summer of 1909. After a difficult construction period of two and a half years marked by setbacks, Schütte's first airship, the SL 1, took off on its first voyage on October 17, 1911. From the end of 1912 in service with the Prussian Army, the ship demonstrated the efficiency and reliability of the "Schütte System" on many voyages until it was destroyed in July 1913. His second airship, the SL 2, clearly exceeded all technical performance requirements placed on it by the Prussian military when it was tested on February 28, 1914. The ship was also more efficient than all airships in service at the time, making it the most modern airship in the world at the time. With him, Schütte finally became Zeppelin's strongest competitor and one of the world's leading experts in aerodynamics and rigid airship construction.

Johann Schütte (3rd from left) in 1934

During the First World War , Schütte became the second largest producer of large military airships of the rigid type with 20 airships, which the German military used, among other things, for bombing targets in Great Britain. After he had recognized the technical potential of the aircraft as early as 1910, Schütte initially took care of the development of the company's own designs in Rheinau against the resistance of his partners. This resulted in prototypes that were never produced in series. During the First World War, he succeeded in starting the licensed production of several hundred reconnaissance aircraft, fighters and long-range bombers on the site of the large shipyard in Zeesen near Königs Wusterhausen, which opened in 1916 .

Due to the regulations of the Versailles Treaty and the Allied definitions, the company Luftschiffbau Schütte-Lanz did not have a single construction contract after the First World War. Schuette's negotiations with foreign, mainly American, companies about the sale and exploitation of his airship patents, about the construction of airships and about the establishment of inter- and intra-continental airship lines failed without exception. At the same time, Schütte was suing the Reich Treasury and Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH through several court instances for compensation for the use of his airship patents in the war. When he had to settle this conflict in 1924 with an unfavorable settlement instead of receiving the high compensation payments he had hoped for, his company was forced to file for bankruptcy . When his son and heir died at the same time, Schütte withdrew more and more as an entrepreneur. Nevertheless, he tried until 1935 with changing partners, such as fascist Italy, to exploit his airship patents. In addition, until his retirement in 1938 he was more routinely employed as a professor of shipbuilding at the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg. In addition, Schütte headed the Scientific Society for Aviation from 1919 to 1935 as first chairman and from 1930 to 1939 the Shipbuilding Society . Enthusiastic about the new political conditions, he carried out the "synchronization" of the two scientific and technical associations during National Socialism . Towards the end of his life he endeavored to positively appreciate his lifetime achievement and to keep it in the consciousness of posterity, among other things by setting up a permanent exhibition in the State Museum Oldenburg .

Honors

In Oldenburg, the Schütte-Lanz-Straße reminds of Johann Schütte and the Sophie-Schütte-Straße of his mother. The entry in the Golden Book was deleted in 1948.

Fonts

  • The towing test station of the North German Lloyd in Bremerhaven. In: Schiffbau, magazine for the entire shipbuilding industry and related fields. 1st year 1900, p. 737 / 2nd year 1901, p. 1 and 203.
  • Investigations into the shape of the stern, especially about wave exits. In: Yearbook of the Shipbuilding Society . Volume 3, 1902, pp. 332-370.
  • Influence on the resistance and roll movement of ships in calm water. In: Yearbook of the Shipbuilding Society. Volume 4, 1903, pp. 341-378.
  • Schütte-Lanz airship construction 1909–1925. Munich / Berlin 1926.

swell

  • Extensive estate from Schütte in the State Museum Oldenburg
  • Federal Archives Berlin-Lichterfelde, R 5
  • Federal Archives Koblenz, N1103 Euler estate / 281-332
  • Secret State Archive Prussian Cultural Heritage, holdings BPH Rep 53, I. HA. Rep 76, I. HA Rep. 89 and VI. Althoff estate
  • General State Archives Karlsruhe
  • Max Mechow: Well-known CCer, Historia Academica. Volume 8/9, p. 249.
  • Museum of Work and Technology Mannheim, inventory 756 SL
  • State Archive Bremen, inventory 7
  • State Archives Gdansk, holdings APG I / 7 and APG 98? / 544
  • State Archives Oldenburg, holdings 134 and 265
  • Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, holdings LZA 16/0043 and LZA 16/0045
  • University archive of the Technical University of Berlin, Schütte-Lanz Album

literature

Monographs

  • Dorothea Haaland: The airship construction Schütte-Lanz Mannheim-Rheinau (1909–1925). The history of an idea as a spatio-temporal process. Dissertation, University of Mannheim, Mannheim 1986. / 2nd revised edition, Mannheim 1996. (= Südwestdeutsche Schriften. Volume 4.)
  • Henry Cord Meyer: Airshipmen, Businessmen and Politics 1890-1940. Washington 1991, pp. 51-80.
  • Günter Schmitt, Werner Schwipps: Pioneers of early aviation. Gondrom, Blindlach 1995, ISBN 3-8112-1189-7 .

Essays

  • Christian R. Salewski: An airship pioneer from northwest Germany. Biographical studies on Johann Heinrich Schütte (1873–1940). In: Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen (ed.): Wissenschaftliches Jahrbuch 2007. Friedrichshafen 2008, pp. 44–321. (also dissertation, University of Oldenburg)
  • Christian R. Salewski, Klaus Saul: The aviation pioneer Johann Heinrich Schütte. In: Insights, research magazine of the University of Oldenburg. Volume 45, 2007, pp. 16-19.

Lexicon article

Exhibition catalogs

  • Lioba Meyer (Red.), Jürgen Bleibler, Kim Braun, Fritz Everding: The dream of flying. Johann Schütte. A pioneer in airship travel. Florian Isensee, Oldenburg 2000, ISBN 3-89598-693-3 .
  • Jürgen Bleibler: Rigid airship projects in Germany 1908 to 1914. In: Wolfgang Meighörner (Hrsg.): Airships that were never built. (Exhibition catalog) Gessler, Friedrichshafen 2002, ISBN 3-86136-076-4 , pp. 31–53.

Web links

Commons : Johann Schütte  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Berthold Ohm and Alfred Philipp (eds.): Directory of addresses of the old men of the German Landsmannschaft. Part 1. Hamburg 1932, p. 185.
  2. ↑ Jürgen Bleibler: rigid airship projects in Germany from 1908 to 1914. In: Wolfgang Meighörner (ed.): Airships that were never built. (Exhibition catalog) Gessler, Friedrichshafen 2002, ISBN 3-86136-076-4 , p. 31.
  3. ↑ Friedrich Scho Husen: Oldenburg street names . Holzberg, Oldenburg 1977 (and addendum 1983).
  4. ↑ City of Oldenburg, street name study 2013. (PDF) Retrieved on December 21, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Schütte, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schütte, Jan; Schütte, Johann Heinrich Karl (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German airship designer and entrepreneur, pioneer in aviation and aerodynamics
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Easter castle near Oldenburg
DATE OF DEATH March 29, 1940
Place of death Dresden