Günther Bock (aeronautical engineer)

Günther Bock (born June 10, 1898 in Charlottenburg , † February 21, 1970 in Munich ) was a German aeronautical scientist, university professor and director of the German Aviation Research Institute from 1936 to 1945 .

Life

Bock was born in Berlin in 1898 as the son of the judge Ernst Bock and his wife Margarete (née Thielemann). From 1916 to 1919 he was a soldier in the First World War. He was dismissed as a flag boy. In 1920 Bock began studying at the Technical University in Berlin , which he graduated in 1923 as a graduate engineer. From 1923 he worked for the Junkers aircraft factory. In 1931, while working, he became a Dr.-Ing. PhD.

In 1931 he was appointed professor of aircraft construction at the Technical University of Danzig . From 1934 to 1937 he was a full professor at the Technical University of Aachen . From 1936 he was chief engineer at the Reich Ministry of Aviation. In 1937 he became a professor in the Reich Service. As director of the German Aviation Research Institute (DVL) based in Berlin-Adlershof , he negotiated their cooperation with Konrad Zuse , whereby they agreed on partial financing of the computer Z3 by the DVL.

In May 1945 Günther Bock and other DVL employees were taken prisoner by the Soviets, were interrogated by members of the Smersch and asked to pass the results of his work at the DVL on to Soviet aviation specialists. In July 1946 he was deported to the Soviet Union as part of Operation Ossawakim , where he worked in Zhukovsky in the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (ZAGI) and later in a German collective in Sawjolowo . In 1954 he returned from the Soviet Union via Pirna to Darmstadt , suffering from health problems . In the same year he was offered a professorship for aerospace engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt . Bock developed various lectures on aerodynamics and aviation technology and made the wind tunnel in Griesheim again a central research facility of the TH Darmstadt. Bock was also involved in the committees of the TH Darmstadt. 1958/1959 he was their rector.

Günther Bock was one of the most important aerospace experts in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1956 he became chairman of the German Aircraft Committee of the Federal Ministry of Transport. Bock was also a member and temporarily deputy chairman of the German commission for space research of the Federal Ministry for Atomic Energy. In 1964 he was elected President of the European Launcher Development Organization (ELDO).

In 1965 he retired. After his retirement, he took over the management of the research focus South in Oberpfaffenhofen as a board member of the German Research Institute for Aviation .

Bock had been married since 1930 and had four children.

Honors

• 1966: Great Cross of Merit .
• 1966: Honorary member of the Scientific Society for Aerospace.

Fonts

• Large aircraft , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1931.
• Development guidelines for aviation technology in the present (and) requirements and effects of the use of jet-powered aircraft in air traffic , together with Edgar Rössger, Verlag Dr. Max Gehlen, Bad Homburg, 1956.
• German aviation research in 1945 - from the point of view of the scientific director of the German Research Institute for Aviation . The statements of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Günther Bock before a commission of Soviet officers in September 1945, Korrell, Wolfenbüttel, 1998.

literature

• Manfred Hampe and Gerhard Pahl (eds.): On the history of mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt , Düsseldorf 2008.
• Isabel Schmidt: The TH Darmstadt in the post-war period (1945–1960) , dissertation, Darmstadt 2014, p. 36f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Holger Lorenz: JUNKERS engineers at IFA from A to Z. Airplane Lorenz, accessed on May 31, 2018 . 
2. ↑ Topic: Vibration damping using material damping .
3. ↑ Dimitri Alexejewitsch Sobolew: German traces in Soviet aviation history . Mittler, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-8132-0675-0 , p. 238 .