Franz Lenze (Manager)

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Franz Lenze (born November 5, 1878 in Düren , † November 12, 1937 in Nauen ) was a German engineer, industrial manager and pioneer of long-distance gas supply .

Live and act

Franz Lenze was born in Düren as the son of the municipal gasworks director Philipp Lenze and his wife Maria Elisabeth Hülster. After attending school, he studied mechanical engineering and chemistry at the Technical University of Karlsruhe , where he graduated in 1903 as a graduate engineer. He then gained his first professional experience at the Thuringian gas company in Niedersedlitz near Dresden. In 1906 he switched to the gas and water works of the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr , where the industrialist and company boss August Thyssen became aware of him. As chief engineer and co-managing director of the Thyssen & Cie. GmbH, the coking specialist formed the first German long-distance gas supply company, Thyssensche Gas- und Wasserwerke GmbH, from the group's gas and water supply companies.

Lenze was also active as an inventor. His two most important patents were the deep freezing developed with Andreas Borchardt to remove naphthalene, ammonia and water vapor from coal distillation gases as well as the tower cleaning process for coke oven gas ( Lenze process ), which made dry gas cleaning more efficient and cheaper. In 1931 Franz Lenze was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Karlsruhe in recognition of his services to coal processing. Lenze received the Bunsen-Pettenkofer honor board from the Association of German Gas and Water Experts. Lenze was also a member of the board of trustees of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research founded in 1912 in Mülheim an der Ruhr.

Franz Lenze lived in the Styrum Castle in Mülheim-Styrum, which August Thyssen had acquired in 1890, and was a member of the Mülheim City Council from 1919 to 1933 as a member of the Center Party . After the dissolution of this body by the National Socialists, he was appointed city councilor from 1934 to 1935. From 1920 until its dissolution in 1933, he was a member of the Rhenish provincial parliament .

During a business trip to Berlin, Lenze had an accident on a country road in Nauen in Brandenburg in November 1937 and died of the consequences the following day. He was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Duisburg- Hamborn .

literature

  • Michael A. Kanther: System Innovation in the Ruhr Area - The West German Remote Gas Supply from the Beginnings to the Beginning of Natural Gas Deliveries (1910–1966) , in: Forum Geschichtskultur Ruhr, issue 2/2011, pp. 45–51.
  • Gertrud Milkereit: Franz Lenze - The specialist for gas and water , in: Niederrheinkammer, January 1987 edition, p. 40.
  • Christian Böse, Michael Farrenkopf: Zeche am Strom. The history of the Walsum mine. Bochum 2015 (2nd edition), ISBN 978-3-937203-71-3

Other sources

  • ThyssenKrupp corporate archive (Duisburg): A / 1786.
  • Archive of the Thyssen Industrial History Foundation (Duisburg): NROE / 46
  • City archive Mülheim an der Ruhr: holdings 1211, 1290 a. 1550
  • Shaft 1 of the Walsum colliery was named after him

Web links

  • Biography in the portal Rheinische Geschichte
personal data
SURNAME Lenze, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer, industrial manager and pioneer of long-distance gas supply
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Düren
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 1937
Place of death Nauen