Georg Klingenberg

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Portrait relief of Georg Klingenberg on his grave, created by Fritz Klimsch

Georg Klingenberg (born November 28, 1870 in Hamburg , † December 7, 1925 in Berlin-Charlottenburg ) was a German electrical engineer and engineer who became known for his innovative concepts for power plant construction.

Georg Klingenberg should not be confused with his brother, the architect Waltar or Walter Klingenberg , who, together with his office partner Werner Issel, built many of the power plants designed by Georg Klingenberg for AEG.

Life

The son of the Hamburg architect Ludwig Klingenberg received his school education in Oldenburg and Osnabrück . He then studied mechanical engineering , electrical engineering , mathematics and physics at the Technical University (Berlin-) Charlottenburg .

After graduation, he worked as an assistant to Adolf Slaby at the university's electrotechnical laboratory until 1899 . After his 1895 at the University of Rostock carried Promotion Dr. phil. (with a dissertation on changes in the length of iron under the influence of magnetism) he completed his habilitation in 1896 with a paper on the influence of the voltage level on the transmission costs of electric transmission lines. Thereupon he received a teaching position for the generation and distribution of electrical energy from the Technical University of Charlottenburg , which he held until 1910.

Klingenberg NAG car from 1900

The Neue Automobil-Gesellschaft (NAG) (a subsidiary of AEG ) produced an automobile developed by Klingenberg in 1901 , the “K-Wagen” (or “ Klingenberg-Wagen ”), which received a lot of attention from experts. Since 1902, parallel to his work at the university, he worked continuously for AEG, which not only built turbines and generators, but also entire power plants. Since then he has largely concentrated on power plant construction; his achievements in this area were so valuable to AEG that in 1910 (according to other sources as early as 1902) he was appointed to the board of directors as successor to Walther Rathenau , of which he was a member until his death.

From the engineer's perspective, he also thought about the structures of the electricity industry: He turned against power plants in municipal ownership with a small supply area and instead propagated privately organized energy companies with several power plants and a large supply area as technically and economically advantageous. In 1918 Klingenberg received an honorary doctorate (Dr.-Ing. E. h.) From the Technical University (Berlin-) Charlottenburg, and he also had the honorary titles of "professor" and "secret building officer". From 1922 until his death in December 1925 he was chairman of the Association of German Engineers (VDI).

Grave of Georg Klingenberg

Georg Klingenberg married in 1912, his wife Maria was a daughter of the Berlin architect Heinrich Joseph Kayser .

Klingenberg died in 1925 at the age of 55 and was buried in the Dreifaltigkeitskirchhof II on Bergmannstrasse in Berlin-Kreuzberg , between the graves of his father-in-law and the painter Adolph von Menzel (field OM). The grave wall bears a bronze relief made by the sculptor Fritz Klimsch with a portrait of Klingenberg. The grave was dedicated as an honor grave of the State of Berlin from 1987 to 2009 .

plant

Klingenberg power plant in Berlin

According to his plans, over 70 power plants were built, around a third of them abroad (e.g. in Baku , Barcelona , Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile ). In 1909 the Heegermühle power plant in Eberswalde was built according to his plans, and for the first time his guidelines for power plant construction were consistently implemented.

One of the last new power plant buildings designed by him and built in 1925/1926 has been named after him since 1927: the " Klingenberg power plant " in Berlin-Rummelsburg .

Publications

  • The economics of by-product plants for power plants . AW Schade, Berlin 1917.
  • The state electricity company . Springer, Berlin 1919.
  • Construction of large power plants . Julius Springer, Berlin 1924.

literature

  • Walter Buschmann (Ed.): Coal power plants. Show of strength for monument preservation !? Essen: Klartext, 1999.
  • Wolfgang Büsing: Georg Klingenberg. An industry captain with a modern twist . In: Happiness, salvation and blessings desired. Family history and local history contributions from Oldenburg . Heinz Holzberg Verlag, Oldenburg 1988, ISBN 3-87358-305-4 , pp. 142-145 (review by Gerold Schmidt in: Oldenburgische Familienkunde , vol. 30 (1988), issue 4, pp. 766 f.)
  • Maria Curter: A power plant builder . The engineer Georg Klingenberg (1870–1925). in: Berlinische Monatsschrift, issue 8/2000.
  • Hans Christian Förster: Power plant with assembly line production. Georg Klingenberg also created the VW at the turn of the century. in: TU-intern (university newspaper of TU Berlin), issue 7–9 / 2004.
  • Helmut Mielert:  Klingenberg, Georg. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , p. 79 f. ( Digitized version ).

Individual evidence

  1. Norbert Gilson: The error as the basis of success. The RWE and the implementation of the economic calculation of the network economy up to the 1930s, in: Helmut Maier (Ed.): Electricity economy between environment, technology and politics: Aspects from 100 years of RWE history 1898-1998, Freiberg 1999, p. 58ff .
  2. ^ Marie-Luise Heuser , Wolfgang König : Tabular compilations on the history of the VDI . In: Karl-Heinz Ludwig (Ed.): Technology, engineers and society. History of the Association of German Engineers 1856–1981 . VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1981, ISBN 3-18-400510-0 , p. 566 .