Friedrich Andreas Willfort
Friedrich Andreas (Fritz) Willfort (born November 7, 1879 in Vienna ; † October 16, 1956 there ) was an Austrian civil engineer and long-time general secretary of the “Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects”. The ÖIAV is a traditional association that has existed since 1848 and has its headquarters in Vienna. Numerous important engineers and architects were among its active members, including Siegfried Marcus , Ferdinand Porsche , Victor Kaplan, Nikola Tesla, Carl Ritter von Ghega , and Clemens Holzmeister
Life
After graduating from the Schottengymnasium in Vienna in 1897, Willfort studied civil engineering at the Technical University of Vienna and passed the second state examination in 1904. During his studies he did a year of volunteer work in the Austro-Hungarian Army and was retired as a lieutenant. From 1905 to 1912 he worked full-time as a civil engineer at the Vienna City Building Office. In addition, because of his extraordinary talent for languages, he worked as an interpreter for the Mayors of Vienna, Karl Lueger and Josef Neumayer , when the translation of technical discussions was necessary during visits abroad. Willfort had a perfect command of English and French. He mastered four other foreign languages at the level of independent language practice.
In 1912 he started working as a secretary in the ÖIAV, which was interrupted in 1914 when he was drafted into military service. In December 1914 he was taken prisoner by Russia on the Carpathian Front and was interned in camps in Central Asia until 1921. About this six-year imprisonment he published the " Turkestanische Tagebuch " in Braumüller Verlag Vienna after returning home . In this book Willfort describes the impressive survival strategies in the prison camps and the culture of the Central Asian peoples as well as the great landscapes in these regions.
From 1921 he worked as general secretary of the ÖIAV, where he was responsible, among other things, of the editorial management of the club magazine, in which numerous scientific papers and specialist articles on topics of architecture and technology were published. In 1928 he was in Iran with an Austrian construction consortium to plan a railway line from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. In August 1938, the ÖIAV was dissolved by the Nazi regime and incorporated into the NS-Bund Deutscher Technik ( NSBDT ). Willfort then worked as a site manager in the architecture firm Kaym & Schlager until the end of the war. As early as May 1945 he was appointed as a commissionary administrator for the reorganization of the ÖIAV. From January 1, 1946 until his retirement on June 30, 1952, he again took on the role of Secretary General.
Publications
- “Turkestan Diary”. Baumüller Verlag Vienna, 1930.
- Fritz Willfort (Ed.): Report on the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Austrian engineer u. Architects Association. June 7 to 11, 1923. Verlag des Verein, Vienna 1923, OBV.
- F (ritz) Willfort (ed.): The centenary of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects. June 3 to 8, 1948. Sn, Vienna 1948, OBV900943753 or ISBN 978-3-900943-75-2 , page 208 ( international understanding and peace ).
Individual proof
1. Journal of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects. 99th year, issue 23/24, 1954.
Technischer Rat Dipl. Ing. Friedrich Willfort - 75 Jahre
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Willfort, Friedrich Andreas |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Willfort, Fritz (short name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian civil engineer, general secretary of the "Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects" |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 7, 1879 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vienna |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 16, 1956 |
| Place of death | Vienna |