Eduard Maurer

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Eduard Maurer (born November 3, 1886 in Königstein im Taunus , † February 21, 1969 in Warnemünde ) was a German chemist and metallurgist and, together with Benno Strauss, one of the pioneers for the large-scale use of stainless steel in Germany .

Beginnings

Eduard Maurer attended primary school in Luxembourg and then the industrial school of the Athenaeum . Inspired by the nearby iron and steel works, he thought of becoming an ironworker after graduating from high school. Since studying metallurgy was out of the question for financial reasons, he decided to study chemistry at the Technical University of Braunschweig for a shorter period . A Luxembourg scholarship enabled him to study physical chemistry and electrochemistry at the University of Karlsruhe from the summer semester of 1905 , including with Fritz Haber . In 1907 the diploma examination followed. He then accepted an offer from the Sorbonne to conduct research under the direction of Henry Le Chatelier , using the language skills from his time in Luxembourg - the Sorbonne was very important in the field of metallurgy at the time. He summarized the results of his research in his dissertation research on the hardening and tempering of iron and steel , with which Fritz Wüst obtained his doctorate at the Technical University of Aachen .

At Krupp

In 1913, Maurer applied to Friedrich Krupp AG in Essen , where he worked in the research institute. There he developed a process for the production of a stainless steel based on a nickel-chromium alloy, which remained cold deformable through a special heat treatment, the so-called final annealing, or which also allowed special strength. For this purpose, two patents were applied for by the patent officer Clemens Pasel in autumn 1912 and granted retrospectively in 1919. Although Krupp earned millions with this V2A steel, Maurer had to be content with 5,000 RM. This was reason enough for him to leave the research facility. From then on, he was hardly remembered there, which led to a scandal in 1927 when his former superior, Strauss, was awarded the Bunsen commemorative coin and did not mention Maurer at the celebratory speech.

In 1919 he went to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Düsseldorf , later the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research , which Fritz Wüst had set up. In 1922 the Krupp Group succeeded in recruiting Maurer for its research institute, and under excellent conditions it came up with Maurer's cast iron diagram , with which it was possible to produce cast iron with a strength approaching that of steel.

Bergakademie Freiberg

Memorial plaque in Freiberg

In 1925, Maurer accepted a call from the Freiberg Mining Academy , which offered him the chair of metallurgy. There he relied more on experimental studies, where he succeeded in building the New Ironworks Institute together with the Association of German Ironworks People , today's Steel Institute VDEh , and the Free State of Saxony . In his research, he examined the scrap-coal process in the Siemens-Martin furnace to produce high-quality steel. This process was even able to save 1,000 jobs in 1931 at the Gröditz steelworks belonging to the Flick Group . In November 1933 he signed the German professors' confession of Adolf Hitler . An NSDAP card of the Freiberg branch in Saxony in the Federal Archives (Department R, former Berlin Document Center ) bears the date of May 1, 1937.

post war period

After 1945 Maurer accepted a research professorship at the office of the Ministry of Black Metallurgy of the USSR in Freiberg, in 1950 he took over the management of the Hennigsdorf Institute of Iron Research and in 1951 the chair of iron and steel science at the Humboldt University in Berlin . He remained despite several offers from companies from the Ruhr area in the Soviet occupation zone and supported there in 1948, the Thomas steel production in the ironworks Maxhütte , 1950 the reconstruction of Gröditzer steel mill for large forging the GDR 1954/55 the elimination of quality problems of construction steel of the type St 52 in the heavy plate rolling mills in Ilsenburg and Kirchmöser , which had led to significant production losses. Even at the age of 70, Maurer was still standing by the oven to take samples.

Publications and honors

Eduard Maurer has published something on almost all problems relating to steel production, processing and use. More than 100 publications deal, among other things, with the physico-chemical reactions of manganese , sulfur and phosphorus, which are important for steel production , as well as a comprehensive description of the hardening and tempering of steel.

In 1950 and 1954, Eduard Maurer received the GDR National Prize for raising the quality of steels . In 1951 the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin accepted him as a full member, and in 1956 the Society of German Miners and Smelters made him an honorary member. He was also named the Great Scientist of the People . The Technical University of Aachen and the Humboldt University of Berlin awarded him an honorary doctorate . In 2007 the Oberhavel 2 Technik Oberstufenzentrum in Hennigsdorf was renamed the Eduard Maurer Oberstufenzentrum . In Gröditz and Hennigsdorf streets are named after him.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ThyssenKrupp: The patent: 100 years of stainless steel. Archived from the original on July 31, 2012 ; Retrieved April 26, 2012 .
  2. ↑ 2007 named after the chemist: Eduard-Maurer-Oberstufenzentrum .
personal data
SURNAME Mason, Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist and metallurgist
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Königstein im Taunus
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1969
Place of death Warnemünde