Karl Steimel

Edgar Karl Alois Steimel (born March 11, 1905 in Lohmar , † July 1, 1990 in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe ) was a German physicist , electrical engineer and inventor .

Life

Coming from a rural milieu, Steimel was able to take his Abitur at the Beethoven Gymnasium in Bonn in 1923 despite economic difficulties and studied physics and mathematics at the University of Cologne , where he received his doctorate in 1928 on a subject on applied mathematics. In Cologne he got in contact with Hans Rukop , who had already been working significantly on the early development of electron tubes at Telefunken in Berlin since 1914 . He became Rukops' private assistant for four years and had the opportunity to carry out important investigations into the properties of electron tubes in his institute.

In February 1932 Steimel moved to Telefunken in Berlin, where he worked in the tube laboratory and was entrusted with the direction of the radio tube development as early as 1934. A double-digit number of patents during this time testify to his wealth of ideas. From 1936 he became head of the entire tube development department at Telefunken, a position that he held until the end of the war in 1945.

In addition, during the war Steimel was given responsibility by the Reich Research Council and Armaments Minister Albert Speer with authority for the entire research and development of electron tubes in the Reich.

Despite his leading position in a technology industry that was important to the war effort, Steimel was politically unaffected, he was neither a member of the NSDAP nor active in other party- affiliated organizations. After the end of the war, he recommended that he only held such a managerial position because of his professional qualities in the Russian occupation forces.

As early as the summer of 1945 he received an offer to work as a consultant and manager in the laboratory, design office and testing facility in Oberspree (LKVO) to be created in the Soviet sector of Berlin . He and a number of his employees accepted the offer. However, he and many of his colleagues were deported to the Soviet Union on October 22nd, 1946 as part of the Ossawakim campaign and had to use their technical knowledge and skills to help modernize Soviet tube production.

In 1952 Steimel was allowed to return to Germany, where he was initially responsible for research and development in the management of the Telefunken company, which is again active in West Germany . From 1956 he took over a newly founded research institute for AEG in Frankfurt am Main and headed all AEG research until his retirement in 1967.

Even after his retirement, Steimel was still active in an honorary advisory capacity for federal authorities and international bodies. He died on July 1st, 1990 in Bad Homburg vd Höhe.

Karl Steimel was married twice and had four children: son Ulrich (* 1941, physicist), daughter Brigitte (* 1942), son Andreas (* 1947, professor for electrical power engineering and power electronics in Bochum), son Johannes (* 1949, Dr. Ing.).

Act

Karl Steimel made a significant contribution to the German share in the development of radio technology. He applied for a total of over 100 patents, 60 of which were granted. A large number of publications prove his activity.

At the beginning of his laboratory work he mainly worked on the problem of creating a suitable tube for the multiplicative mixing in heterodyne receivers , which should enable effective fading control. The combination of triode and hexode , along with other technical solutions in the form of the ACH1 type, was able to establish itself in the years after 1934.

His further work in the field of electron tubes is characterized by the construction of the composite tube VCL11 , which made the Volksempfänger DKE38 possible as a cheap radio, as well as the harmonic series introduced in 1938 - here for example the types ECH11 - EBF11 - ECL11, which made it possible to use Only three composite tubes that are matched to one another in their properties can be used to construct a high quality six - circle super This circuit solution, also with later modernized successor types, was to become the basis for radio device development in Germany for decades.

In addition, Steimel was responsible for the tube development for the standard television receiver from 1939 and for the water-cooled large tubes for the radio stations.

An important development was the creation of special tubes for wavelengths below 10 cm, which were required by the war-related development of radar technology . This required a completely new production technology for such tubes - the "metal-ceramic technology" for disc triodes , which under his direction became ready for production towards the end of the war.

During his forced stay in Frjasino near Moscow, Steimel, as an authority recognized by the Russians, had to represent the interests of all the radio specialists interned with him and, as an advisor to the responsible Soviet ministry, also made a significant contribution to the development of the Soviet electronics industry at the time.

During his time as head of AEG research, until his retirement in 1967, he mainly dealt with thyristors (controllable silicon rectifiers), the drive technology that can be implemented with them and the development of cyclotrons for nuclear research.

It was in this context that he later worked as a consultant in the nuclear energy industry . Steimel was part of the administrative board of the Jülich nuclear research facility and was chairman of the scientific committee of the Association of German Electrical Engineers (VDE).

Honors

• 1961: Honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Aachen
• 1970: VDE ring of honor

Fonts

• The influence of Mass u. Term v. Electrons in the range d. Rundfunkröhren , in: Die TelefunkenRöhre , H. 5, 1935, pp. 213-18.
• The Rundfunkröhrenprogr. 1938/39 , ibid., Special ed. as an ax. to H. 13, 1938, pp. 2-27.
• Ganzmetall-Rundfunkröhren , in: Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift , Issue 31, September 4, 1938, pp. 813–815;
• The rule series d. Stahlröhrenserie , ibid., Pp. 28–40 (with R. Schiffel).
• About differences and Parallels in d. Reception u. Senderöhrentechnik , ibid., H. 14, 1938, pp. 159-163.
• Stand u. Future prospects d. Rundfunkröhrenentwicklung , in: The Telefunken Ztg . 21, 1940, No. 84, pp. 7-16.
• The tube in the feeder , 1956.
• Energy electronics u. regulated electr. Drives , 1957.
• The location d. Industrial research in research u. Technology , 1963.
• Express traffic on d. Basis d. Wheel-rail systems, non-contact driving technology f. Schnellbahnen , 1973 (with H. Weh).

literature

• Renate Tobies:  Steimel, Karl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 25, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-428-11206-7 , pp. 133-135 ( digitized version ).
• Berthold Bosch: In memory of Dr. phil Dr. Ing. E. h. Karl Steimel . In: Funkgeschichte . No. 77 , 1991, pp. 5-10 .
• Renate Tobies: Steimel, Karl . In: New German Biography . tape 25 , 2013, p. 133-135 ( deutsche-biographie.de ).
• Winfried Müller: From the past of the television electronics plant - significant events 1945–1960 . In: Industriesalon Schöneweide (ed.): History of technology from the industrial salon . No. 6 .
• Georg Rovenski, Andrey Chernushiech and Horst Elsner: German specialists in Frjasino. 1946-1952 . Ed .: Club of Historians Science City Fryazino. (Private printing).

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Steimel in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ VDE ring of honor . Accessed January 31, 2018.