Emil Probst (civil engineer)

Emil Heinrich Probst (born October 10, 1877 in Dobromil , Galicia , † January 27, 1950 in London ) was a German civil engineer.

biography

Probst descended from Jewish parents whom he lost at an early age. He grew up with an aunt in Vienna and, much to the annoyance of his relatives, converted to Protestant Christianity. He went to the Realgymnasium in Vienna until his Abitur in 1895 and initially studied medicine at the University of Vienna and from 1896 civil engineering at the Vienna University of Technology , graduating in 1903. In between he did his military service as a one-year volunteer (1899/1900). After graduating, he studied reinforced concrete construction in Paris and worked as an engineer in the USA in 1904. In 1905/06 he was Franz Schüle's assistant at the ETH Zurich and from 1906 a civil engineer in Berlin. In 1908 he received his doctorate at the TH Berlin-Charlottenburg ( influence of the fittings and the cracks in the concrete on the structural safety ). He then completed his habilitation at the TH Berlin-Charlottenburg ( A Critique of the Existing Regulations of Reinforced Concrete Structures ) and became a private lecturer (in 1912 he also became a Prussian citizen). In the First World War he was with the pioneers of the Prussian Landwehr from 1914 to 1918. In 1916 he became a full professor for reinforced concrete construction at the TH Karlsruhe , but was only able to take up the position in 1918 because he was not released from the military. In 1919 he built the structural engineering research institute in Karlsruhe. In 1926/27 he was rector. In 1933 he was expelled by the National Socialists (the exemption for Jews on the front lines was not recognized because he was involved in building fortresses), but did not go into exile in Great Britain until 1939, when his children were already there. There he received support from British colleagues such as Reginald Stradling , was a lecturer at the University of Bristol from 1943 to 1945 and then an independent engineer and research assistant in the research department of the British Ministry of Works. In 1942 he became a British citizen. In 1947 he was formally reinstated in his professorship in Karlsruhe and at the same time retired.

In the 1920s and 1930s he was a pioneer with strain measurements on concrete structures (for example domes and dams). Since the mathematical models and calculation methods were not very well developed at that time, he gave preference to measurements on the building. He researched the watertightness of concrete, its use in road construction and the statics of concrete.

Probst was soon known internationally. He represented the VDI on trips to China, Japan, Sweden, Russia and the USA. In 1928 he received the bronze medal of the Institution of Structural Engineering in London and in 1929 he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston. He advocated a curriculum reform with the aim of not training subject-specific specialists, but emphasized the need for broad interdisciplinary training. For a long time he was the liaison between the professors and the student union.

He was one of the founders of the civil engineer magazine , whose publication he stopped in 1934.

In 1914 he married Elisabeth Leitholf (1892–1974), with whom he had four children.

Fonts

• Lectures on reinforced concrete, Volume 1, Springer 1917, Archives

Web links

• Leo BW (with biography of Tobias Seidl, Badische Biographien)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter P. (PDF; 649 kB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Accessed August 28, 2018 .