Friedrich Franz (metallurgist)

Friedrich Franz (born August 25, 1889 in Olbernhau ; † October 15, 1969 in Brandenburg an der Havel ) was an iron and steel specialist. He led the rebuilding of the Brandenburg steel and rolling mill after 1950.

Life

In 1909 he began studying metallurgy at the Bergakademie Freiberg , where he joined the Corps Saxo-Borussia , of which he was senior in the winter semester 1910/11 and the summer semester 1911. He took part in the First World War as a lieutenant and adjutant in the foot artillery. He received the Iron Cross II and the Königl. Saxon. Order of Albrecht 2nd class with swords. He completed his studies in 1917 as a graduate engineer. He gained his first professional experience from 1918 in the Riesa steelworks . In 1922 he moved to the Rhineland, first to Hamborn and then to Düsseldorf . In 1926 he became operations manager at the Gutehoffnungshütte (GHH) in Oberhausen . In 1933 he joined the NSDAP . In 1940 he took over the management of the Gelsenkirchen wire mill .

In 1941 he became operations director of the Kneuttingen blast furnace steelworks in occupied Lorraine , and from 1943 in Rombach near Metz . Here he was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 because he saw the war as lost. In 1945 he supported the technical director of Maxhütte in Unterwellenborn , which belongs to the Flick group. The Soviet military administration appointed him the new manager of this plant. In 1947 he moved to the Thale steelworks . In 1950 he became technical director of the Brandenburg steel and rolling mill and remained so until he retired in 1956.

Construction in Brandenburg

After 1945, the Brandenburg steel and rolling mill, which had previously belonged to the Flick Group, was completely dismantled. In 1947 it was a heap of rubble and scrap.

On December 1, 1949, Friedrich Franz received the order as technical director to help build a new steel and rolling mill. The foundation stone for the new steelworks at the old location was laid on February 15, 1950. Around 4,000 people were working on this construction site, construction machines were a rarity. A construction speed that is almost unbelievable today was set at that time in order to stamp the work out of the ground under the adverse circumstances of the time. On July 20, 1950, less than 6 months after the start of construction, the first Siemens-Martin furnace was tapped for the first time. By 1953, the large hall with 10 Siemens-Martin ovens and the generator hall, in which the generator gas was generated from raw lignite, were built.

Friedrich Franz was highly committed to his work, both in planning and construction, in production organization as well as in further training and social issues for employees. His just rigor as a superior, his zeal for work and his dedication to the workforce earned him the honorable nickname Papa Franz .

After the initial development phase, which ended in 1953, Friedrich Franz managed the plant until 1956. He also wrote many articles for the company newspaper as well as a specialist book and was involved in his area of ​​expertise in the Chamber of Technology

Honors

In Brandenburg an der Havel , Friedrich-Franz-Strasse in the former steelworks site is named after him.

swell

• Lothar Franz: Friedrich Franz und der Wiederaufbau , in: Author collective: 90 years of steel from Brandenburg - contemporary witnesses report , Westkreuz-Verlag Berlin / Bonn 2005, ISBN 3-929592-80-0 , pages 31–34

See also

• Brandenburg Industrial Museum

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bergrat C. Menzel: Yearbook for mining and metallurgy in the Kingdom of Saxony. Born in 1909 , Craz & Gerlach, Freiberg 1909, p. 256
2. ^ Adolf Berve, Herbert Dieter Nienhaus, Kurt Schröter, Gerhard Voigt, Karl Heinz Weber: Chronicle of the Corps Saxo-Montania zu Freiberg and Dresden in Aachen, Part II - Corps Saxo-Borussia Freiberg i. Sat. 1842 - 1951 , Ratingen 1982
3. ↑ Harry Waibel : Servants of many masters. Former Nazi functionaries in the Soviet Zone / GDR. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-63542-1 , p. 92.