Günter Clemens (engineer)

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Günter Clemens (born May 5, 1925 in Leipzig ; † January 5, 2010 there ) was a German civil engineer and university professor.

Live and act

As a participant in World War II, Clemens survived with a shrapnel wound to his head and was taken prisoner by the Americans after the hospital, from which he escaped in June 1945. After Clemens had obtained the certificate of maturity in Leipzig at Easter 1946, he studied pure and applied mathematics as well as theoretical and applied physics with a focus on applied mechanics at the natural sciences department of the philosophy faculty of the Alma Mater Lipsiensis . In addition, Clemens also took courses on chemistry , philosophy and education . In December 1949 he obtained his diploma there and passed the scientific state examination for the higher teaching post. Then he was a teacher at the Goethe and Herderschule until 1954 and the FDJ faced great difficulties , as he protected the members of the young community in his Abitur class as a teacher .

These problems and differences with the school management prompted Clemens to quit school and in September 1954 to find a new professional perspective at the newly founded University of Construction in Leipzig - initially as a senior assistant at the chair for technical mechanics . As early as January 1955 he took over the relevant lectures at the Leipzig University and on January 30, 1959, he was awarded a doctorate degree by the University of Civil Engineering in Weimar with a dissertation on the polarization-optical investigation of the stress distribution in wall-like girders with reinforced edges . PhD. A year later he was appointed a member of the Central Commission for Higher Education at the State Secretariat for Higher and Technical Education, which was then led by Gerhard Harig (1902–1966), a physicist and well-known Marxist historian of science. As early as 1962, Clemens was appointed head of the chair for technical mechanics at the University of Civil Engineering in Leipzig. In 1963 he completed his habilitation with a thesis on the principles and methods of calculating rectangular isotropic plates at his university.

On January 1, 1977, the University of Civil Engineering was merged with other Leipzig educational institutions to form the TH Leipzig . There Clemens was elected Dean of the Faculty of Technology and Natural Sciences. The laboratory for stress optics and model statics, which he set up at the chair, advanced to become the nucleus of the test facilities at the TH Leipzig. Clemens also introduced computer science , which was establishing itself in the GDR , into teaching and research in technical mechanics. His monographs on technical mechanics for civil engineers enjoyed great popularity not only in the GDR, but also in the Federal Republic of Germany. From October 15, 1985, Clemens also worked at the TH Leipzig as head of the technical mechanics and solid construction science department . From 1960 to 1984 he accompanied more than 400 doctoral students. Clemens retired in 1990 at the age of 65. Nevertheless, Clemens was committed to the interests of his alma mater until 1997.

The fact that Clemens was an innovative teacher of German-speaking technical mechanics is proven by his scrambled book teaching program Cutting forces in rod structures , which was based on the programmed teaching method that came to Europe from the USA at the time. With this and his textbooks, Clemens joins the circle of the great German-speaking pedagogues of technical mechanics from Johann Albert Eytelwein , Franz Joseph Ritter von Gerstner and Julius Weisbach to August Föppl and Christian Otto Mohr to István Szabó .

Works

  • Günter Clemens: Cutting forces in rod structures. Teaching and exercise program . Berlin: VEB Verlag für Bauwesen 1970.
  • Günter Clemens: Basics of the similarity mechanics . In: Experimental Stress Analysis: Model Statics, ed. v. Siegfried Speer. Leipzig: BG Teubner 1971 (Chapter 1).
  • Günter Clemens: Technical mechanics for civil engineers , Vol. 1: Statics of rigid bodies . Berlin: VEB Verlag für Bauwesen 1972, 1974 (2nd edition), 1978 (3rd edition), 1982 (4th edition), 1984 (5th edition).
  • Günter Clemens: Technical mechanics for civil engineers , Vol. 2: Kinetics of the rigid body. Berlin: VEB Verlag für Bauwesen 1975, 1984 (2nd edition).
  • Günter Clemens: Technical Mechanics in Basic . Berlin: VEB Verlag für Bauwesen 1989.
  • Günter Clemens: Technical Mechanics in Pascal . Düsseldorf: Werner-Verlag 1992.
  • Günter Clemens: Technical mechanics in construction . Basics of statics and kinetics. Düsseldorf: Werner Verlag 1996.

proof

  1. ↑ Günter Clemens: Polarization-optical investigation of the stress distribution in wall-like carriers with edge reinforcement . Dissertation University of Construction Weimar 1959.
  2. ↑ Günter Clemens: Fundamentals and methods for calculating rectangular isotropic plates . Habilitation thesis University of Civil Engineering Leipzig 1963.
  3. ↑ Claus Schleicher and Wolfgang Graße: Günter Clemens † . In: Stahlbau , Volume 79 (2010), No. 3, p. 243.
  4. ^ Karl-Eugen Kurrer : The History of the Theory of Structures. Searching for Equilibrium . Berlin: Ernst & Sohn 2018, pp. 189f., ISBN 978-3-433-03229-9 .
personal data
SURNAME Clemens, Günter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German civil engineer and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH May 5, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH January 5, 2010
Place of death Leipzig