Fritz Höppler

Fritz Höppler (full name: Ernst Fritz Höppler ; born April 29, 1897 in Cannewitz ; † January 16, 1955 in Medingen , GDR ) was an engineer, chemist and inventor in the field of rheological measurement technology .

Life

Fritz Höppler studied technical chemistry at the University of Leipzig, at the Friedrichs-Polytechnikum (University of Applied Technology) in Köthen and at the Technical University of Hanover , but had to interrupt his studies after the outbreak of the First World War . He was drafted into military service, later wounded, and graduated in 1922 after being resumed. From 1924 to 1926 he worked initially at Henkel until he joined the Haake brothers in Medingen as a chemist in 1927 . As the head of the company laboratory, he made his most important inventions from 1927 to 1948. The company was classified as important to the war effort in the Second World War and Fritz Höppler was able to continue his developments.

After the end of the war he was employed by the Soviet occupying forces as an operator. Thanks to his ingenuity, he was able to significantly improve the food shortage at that time through the skillful use of Wehrmacht stocks (cola nuts). He switched the entire production to food and was able to make the company economically self-sufficient. He was imprisoned on charges of serious economic crimes. He was held in custody for 15 months without a trial and was finally released with the brief apology “we were wrong”. Fritz Höppler resumed his work in the now state-owned company, now VEB Prüfgerätewerk Medingen . He was given the title of " Honored Inventor " as restitution, in addition to back pay , but his imprisonment had left its mark. He died only a few years later at the age of 58 and is buried in the forest cemetery in Medingen.

Services

In addition to the development of various process technologies for the production of starch derivatives, Höppler's most important achievement is the development of rheological measuring instruments:

• Falling ball viscometer (* 1932, today DIN 53015)
• Ball pressure viscometer (* 1938)
• Consistometer
• Micro plastometers
• Quasi- viscometer

also:

• various temperature control baths
• a device for determining the fat content of milk

literature

• Johann Christian Poggendorff: Biographical-literary concise dictionary of the exact natural sciences , Volume VIIa, p. 512f. (with extensive catalog raisonné)
• Medinger Chronicle . Publication of the Association for Local History and Village Development eV Medingen, Lößnitz Druck, March 25, 2000
• Fritz Höppler - In memory of the inventor of the falling ball viscometer . Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Institute for Food and Bioprocess Engineering TU-Dresden, 1995

Web links

• RHEOTEST Medingen GmbH - Collection of historical falling ball viscometers and rheological measuring devices from the time of Fritz Höppler
• Literature by and about Fritz Höppler in the catalog of the German National Library
• Elly Höppler:  Höppler, Fritz. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 351 ( digitized version ).