Adolf Wallichs

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Adolf Wallichs (born November 5, 1869 in Neumünster ; † May 14, 1959 in Aachen ) was a German university professor for machine tools and industrial engineering, head of the machine tool laboratory WZL at RWTH Aachen University and rector of RWTH Aachen University .

Live and act

After finishing school and although he did not have a high school diploma, Wallichs studied mechanical engineering at both the Technical University of Karlsruhe and the Technical University of Berlin from 1889 . During his studies he became a member of the Fidelitas Karlsruhe Landsmannschaft in 1889/90 . When he graduated as a qualified engineer in 1894, he then gained experience as a designer at Maschinenbau R. Wolf Magdeburg-Buckau , before he returned to the TH Berlin as an assistant to Alois Riedler in 1896 . From 1900, Wallichs moved to Mülheim an der Ruhr as chief engineer and operations director of the mechanical engineering department at Friedrich Wilhelms-Hütte .

On July 1, 1906, he finally accepted a call to RWTH Aachen University as a full professor for machine tools and industrial engineering and the construction of mining machines. He stayed here until his retirement in 1935 and headed the university as rector from 1913 to 1915, succeeding August Hirsch and from 1919 to 1920 as successor to Friedrich Klockmann . In addition, Adolf Wallichs, who has meanwhile been promoted to the secret government council, founded the machine tool laboratory, which was one of the best international institutions of its kind from the start and was later continued and expanded by Herwart Opitz . By translating the two works by Frederick Winslow Taylor On the Art of Cutting Metals and Shop Management , which Wallichs published in 1907 and 1909, he contributed, among other things, to a greater focus on the Taylor system in Germany.

In addition, Wallichs was one of the co-initiators who brought together the scientific and technical research in the field of aircraft construction at the Technical University, the corresponding public interest and the necessary coordination of a planned long-haul flight to Berlin, which resulted in the founding of the Aachen Association for Airship Travel in 1911 . Four scientific associations, the Aachen district association in the Association of German Engineers , the Society for Earth and Weather Studies , the Natural Science Association of Aachen and the Electrotechnical Association as well as 76 private individuals, including Professors Hugo Junkers , Hans Jacob Reissner , August Hertwig and Georg Frentzen in addition to Wallichs , Felix Rötscher , the aviation pioneer Erich Lochner , the incumbent Lord Mayor Veltmann, representatives of the authorities, city councilors, officers and eight wives, including ladies Lochner, Polis, Rötscher, Reissner and Delius, were among the signatories of the founding deed. More than 170 members joined the association.

At the beginning of the Nazi era , Wallichs belonged to the denunciation committee with the former rectors Felix Rötscher , Hubert Hoff , Hermann Bonin and Robert Hans Wentzel , without being a member of the NSDAP , which, among other things, dealt with the review of the ASTA ( General Student Committee ) and dealt with cases reported by colleagues and students to the student leaders on the basis of alleged communist ideas or behavior critical of the regime. By forwarding these reports to the Reich Commissioner in the Ministry of Education, Bernhard Rust , the non-Aryan professors Otto Blumenthal , Arthur Guttmann , Walter Maximilian Fuchs , Ludwig Hopf , Theodore von Kármán , Paul Ernst Levy , Karl Walter Mautner , Alfred Meusel , Leopold Karl Pick , Rudolf Ruer , Hermann Salmang and Ludwig Strauss withdrew their teaching permit from September 1933 under the law for the restoration of the civil service . Otherwise the Wallichs was able to remain largely politically neutral. This led to a necessary confirmation of his attitude loyal to the regime by his employee and deputy lecturer leader Herwart Opitz. Wallich's further attempts at influencing were finally prevented by his early retirement.

As early as 1934, Adolf Wallichs received an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Hanover and ... in recognition of his outstanding services, which he had earned in his almost 30 years as a teacher and researcher at RWTH Aachen University, on November 1, 1949, he was made an honorary senator of the RWTH Aachen appointed.

literature

  • Walter Eversheim, Tilo Pfeiffer (ed.): 100 years of production technology. Machine tool laboratory WZL of the RWTH Aachen from 1906 to 2006 . Springer, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-540-33315-0 , pp. 11 to 35 and others. Google Books
  • Ulrich Kalkmann: The Technical University of Aachen in the Third Reich (1933–1945) . Verlag Mainz, Aachen 2003, ISBN 3-86130-181-4 , p. 402 and others. Google Books

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. 126.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wallichs, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German university professor for machine tools and rector of the RWTH Aachen
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Neumunster
DATE OF DEATH May 14, 1959
Place of death Aachen