Egon Kunze

Egon Joachim Kunze (born September 9, 1930 in Limbach-Oberfrohna ; † July 21, 2010 in Bergisch Gladbach ) was a German chemist .

biography

After graduating from high school in Annaberg-Buchholz in the same year as Werner Gumpel , Kunze studied chemistry at the University of Dresden , where he did his doctorate with Kurt Schwabe and later did his habilitation. There he experienced the suppression of the uprising of June 17, 1953 by the Red Army and Barracked People's Police , about which he later commented as a contemporary witness .

As a qualified professor at the Bergakademie Freiberg , he was refused a professorship because of comments critical of the regime and for lack of willingness to join the SED . He then fled to West Germany with his family in 1974. There he worked first at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering in Munich, then from 1975 as a senior engineer in Cologne at TÜV Rheinland AG and volunteered in the field of human rights , especially in the ISHR , with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe. Together with his wife, he campaigned for dissidents such as the Estonian biologist Mart-Olav Niklus and the family of the Czechoslovak civil rights activist Pavel Wonka, who died in prison .

Kunze's main research areas were materials science , electroplating, and corrosion and corrosion protection . The work of the same name, which he published in 2001 as a successor to Fritz Tödt , is considered the standard work in this area according to the specialist journal Chemie Ingenieur Technik . His scientific studies on the corrosion of implants in the human body deserve special recognition. On the basis of this knowledge, the frequency of damage in joint prostheses could be greatly reduced and the body tolerance improved. A TÜV test mark guaranteed the break resistance of appropriately tested products until the introduction of new test seals.

From 1989 to 2001 Kunze taught at the Ruhr University in Bochum . As early as 1976 he was appointed Scientific Councilor and Professor for the field of materials in the chemical engineering department of the Technical University of Dortmund .

He was married and had two children.

Publications (selection)

• Contribution to the passivity of nickel and stainless steels. Freiberg 1965
• Influence of deformation on the electrochemical and corrosion behavior of iron in acidic solutions. Freiberg 1970.
• with Heinz-Jürgen Lange: Galvanic surface protection of material combinations by means of copper-nickel layers, German publishing house for basic industry. Freiberg 1974.
• as editor: Corrosion and Corrosion Protection. 6 volumes, Wiley-VCH, 2001, ISBN 3-527-29994-7 .

literature

• Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar 2001, Volume 3, Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin
• "Der Bareldraht" magazine of the Union of Victims' Associations of Communist Tyranny , issue 1/2013 (obituary)
• The Deutsche Universitätszeitung, united with Hochschul-Dienst, Volume 32, Issues 1–23, Verlag Dr. Josef Raabe, 1976

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Federal Agency for Civic Education Project “17. June 1953 “Egon Kunze, chemistry student, accessed on June 17 in Dresden on December 29, 2017
2. ↑ Greetings from Federal President Johannes Rau at the event "Call for Freedom and Democracy. The Legacy of June 17, 1953". accessed on December 29, 2017
3. ↑ Egon Joachim Kunze . ( prabook.com [accessed January 4, 2017]).
4. ↑ Book Review: Smart Structures - Analysis and Design. By AV Srinivasan, DM McFarland. - Documents . In: Documents.tips . ( documents.tips [accessed January 4, 2017]).
5. ^ E. Kunze: Corrosion and Corrosion Protection in Medical Technology . In: Egon Kunze (Ed.): Corrosion and corrosion protection . WILEY-VCH, 2001, ISBN 978-3-527-62565-9 , pp. 3234-3370 , doi : 10.1002 / 9783527625659.ch5v .