Alexander Koch (engineer)

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Alexander Koch (born April 15, 1852 in Hüttengrund , † June 28, 1923 in Bad Reichenhall ) was a German civil engineer , construction clerk and university professor .

Life

Alexander Koch was born in 1852 in the small town of Hüttengrund in Thuringia as the son of the modest welder Johann Nikolaus Koch and his wife Johanna Friederike Koch born. Dittmar . He came to Wasseralfingen at a young age . After attending school in Aalen and Stuttgart , he studied railway and hydraulic engineering at the Technical University of Stuttgart . After the first state examination, he was also a private lecturer and research assistant there. In 1877, after passing the second state examination, he was appointed government builder ( assessor in the public building administration) and began a civil service career in the Württemberg state service. From 1878 he worked in the ministerial department for road and hydraulic engineering in Stuttgart. In 1880 he was appointed road construction inspector and transferred to Ulm . Here he worked on the correction of Iller and Danube . 1888 he moved to Stuttgart Ministry and was Kollegialrat . From 1889 to 1895 he was a member of the Imperial Canal Commission for the construction of the Kiel Canal in Kiel .

On January 1, 1896, he was appointed full professor of engineering and hydraulic engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt , where he succeeded Eduard Sonne (1828-1917). From 1897 to 1898 he was dean of the engineering department at the Technical University of Darmstadt. He then took over the post of rector for two years until 1900 .

From 1898 Koch was an expert on the Panama Canal in the Comité technique de la Compagnie nouvelle des Canals . In 1900 he was given an independent chair for hydraulic engineering at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. In 1908, on his initiative, a hydraulic engineering laboratory was completed in the basement of the new extension to the Herrgarten University. Koch described this approximately 1,000 m² laboratory in detail in an essay published in 1908. Koch carried out the world's first model tests for tidal rivers . The hydraulic engineering laboratory became internationally known and served for teaching and research for almost 30 years.

From November 1911 to 1914 Alexander Koch was a member of the first chamber of the state estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse . On July 12, 1916, Koch was appointed agent of the Grand Duchy of Hesse at the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine .

In 1920 Koch retired. However, he continued to work as a lecturer in the field of hydraulic engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt. He died in June 1923 at the age of 71 while taking a spa stay in Bad Reichenhall.

Alexander Koch was born in 1892 with Amalie. Bock married. From the marriage the sons Fritz and Hans and the daughter Elisabeth (* 1890 in Kiel; † after 1990) emerged, who had been married to Ernst Arnold (1888–1978), the director of the Euler paper mill in Bensheim, since 1914 .

Honors

Fonts

  • The hydraulic engineering laboratory. In: The Grand Ducal Technical University of Darmstadt 1896–1908. Darmstadt 1908, pp. 69-72.

literature

  • Christa Wolf, Marianne Viefhaus: Directory of professors at TH Darmstadt. Darmstadt 1977, p. 107.
  • Koch, Alexander. In: Roland Dotzert (Ed.): Stadtlexikon Darmstadt. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-80621930-3 , p. 506.
  • Jochen Lengemann : MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index (= political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Vol. 14 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , p. 219.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Koch, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German hydraulic engineer, construction officer and university lecturer
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Hüttengrund
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1923
Place of death Bad Reichenhall