Gerhard Merkel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Curt Gerhard Merkel (born August 12, 1929 in Chemnitz ) is a German computer scientist and science organizer.

Gerhard Merkel (2007)

biography

When Gerhard Merkel, whose family owned a timber company, was eight years old, his mother died. He then grew up in close ties with his father and grandfather in the grandparents' household and attended secondary school . He had his first dramatic war experience as a teenager in a bombing raid when he was buried under rubble in a cellar. At the beginning of March 1945 he was drafted into military service and, after a short shooting training, assigned to an anti-tank brigade. On May 7th, he fled his position on the instructions of the superior sergeant major and was picked up by Soviet soldiers 12 hours later. Although he was still in uniform and armed when he was arrested, he escaped the fate of the many prisoners of war. He was disarmed and sent home on foot without further ado.

After the war he became a member of the Christian young community and completed an apprenticeship as a watchmaker, which he completed with honors as the best apprentice. He then began to study engineering , first from 1948 to 1951 at the Dresden Engineering School , which he completed in 1951 as a graduate engineer with access to university studies. From 1951 to 1955 he continued his studies (including precision mechanics / gear engineering) at the Technical University in Dresden, which he completed as a graduate engineer (Dipl.-Ing.); his closest friend from university was Heinz Töpfer .

From 1953 to 1961 he worked as a lecturer for gear engineering and control engineering at the Dresden Engineering School. He received his doctorate in 1959 and found the way to computer-aided design theory through his research work on algebraically based mechanism synthesis. In 1961 he began research work in industry at the Central Institute for Automation (ZIA) as head of the control and computing technology department, but quickly rose to the position of director for science and technology and in 1964 formed the ZIA into the Institute for Data Processing (idv) , which he headed until 1965 was.

The results of this working period are the process computer series PR 1000/2000 with applications in several branches of industry under the responsibility of Manfred Günther , the production control FERTODATA for mechanical engineering companies, attractive application projects tailored for the GDR computer ZRA 1, etc. a. from the Operations Research division , an arsenal of methods for preparing electronic data processing systems ( EDVA ) of the R 300 type and other pioneering solutions. Merkel organized symposia on data processing, the publication of the specialist journal Rechentechnik / datenverarbeitung and the series of information processing publications in 1964 by DIE WIRTSCHAFT and became its editor. He expressed himself in lectures and publications on the development of computer science , founded a specialist section in the Chamber of Technology (KDT), Scientific and Technical Society for Measurement and Automation Technology WGMA (chairman: Heinz Töpfer , then Werner Richter ), and he joined the Government commission for computer technology appointed.

In 1966 he was obliged to implement the concept he had worked out for the development of computing technology in the GDR until 1969, as deputy minister for electrical engineering and electronics Otfried Steger - responsible for data processing - through structural changes and extensive expansions on the industrial side. At that time, electronic data processing was strongly promoted in the GDR in order to catch up with the considerable gap to the West. At that time (1969) Merkel saw the need to first convince senior officials and managers of the urgent need for extensive investments, retraining and conversion of companies to data processing as a significant obstacle to the introduction of EDP.

From 1969 Merkel was the founder and head of the Large Research Center (GFZ) of the Robotron combine , from 1969 to 1977 he was the founding director of the VEB Robotron Center for Research and Technology (ZFT). From 1969 to 1979 and from 1983 to 1985 he was head of research and development at the Robotron combine.

The first GDR data processing system R 300 was put into series production, the development of the successor series R 400 with R 21 and R 40 (ES 1040) as well as the small computers R 4000/4200 were designed and started, the cooperation with the USSR and within the framework of the multi-sided Government Commission on Computing Technology ( ESER , SKR) started, investment projects in the centers of Dresden , Chemnitz and Leipzig were implemented, the production of peripheral memories and punch card machines began, the Robotron combine was formed in 1969.

From 1975 to 1979 he was the chief designer of ESER computers . His predecessor was Manfred Günther and his successor was Hanns-Georg Jungnickel . Merkel was a member of the SED district leadership in Dresden from March 1976 to February 1986 . From 1975 to 1986 he was honorary professor at the TU Dresden, in 1987 he was appointed professor at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR .

1980 to 1983 he was the founding director of the Center for Research and Technology Microelectronics (ZFTM) in Dresden. In 1983 and 1985 he was dismissed on the recommendation of the Ministry for State Security (Dresden district) and with the approval of the SED district leadership in Dresden.

1986 followed his doctorate in science (Doctor scientiae technicarum, Dr. sc. Techn.). In addition, this year he took over the management of the Institute for Computer Science and Computing Technology at the Academy of Sciences in Berlin with a focus on reliable computer systems, automated data networks (WAN), numerical process technologies and CAD data storage systems; he held this position until 1991.

After German reunification he worked as a freelance and project manager at WITEGA Research GmbH in Berlin. When she retired, Merkel devoted herself to the history of computer science and computing in the GDR with lectures and publications.

Merkel wrote textbooks, specialist articles in manuals and magazines as well as articles on generally socially relevant topics in newspapers and magazines. So far, 104 such posts have been recorded.

Appointments and honors

Merkel was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (DAW) in 1969, was appointed honorary professor for computer architecture at the TU Dresden in 1975 and was appointed academy professor in 1987 by the President Werner Scheler of the AdW . He was appointed by the Council of Ministers of the GDR as a member of the research council , as head of the automation forecast group, as a member of the state leadership group for automated data networks and the leadership group for flexible automation. He was active as a director or member of several research councils and was elected chairman of the Society for Informatics of the GDR (GI DDR) in 1988.

Merkel was awarded the National Prize for Science and Technology II. Class (1979), as an Honored Technician of the People , with the Order of the Banner of Labor in the three Levels I, II and III and with the Order of Friendship of Nations from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Publications

  • Epistemological problems in technology. In: The technology. Verlag Technik Berlin, 15th year, issue 5/1960, pages 325-330.
  • Quality criteria for the approximation to be achieved in gear synthesis . In: Technische Hochschule Ilmenau, conference report on the 8th International Colloquium (1963), Part 4, pages 423–426.
  • Data processing - instrument of management activity. State Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin 1967.
  • Status and perspectives in the development and use of computing technology in the GDR, in the series of publications on information processing , development and application of electronic computing technology in the GDR, Verlag die Wirtschaft Berlin 1976, pages 14-62.
  • On the architecture of electronic computing systems . Plenary lecture on the conference "INFO 77" in contributions to information processing ; BSB BG Teubner Verlagsgesellschaft Leipzig 1977, pp. 77–90.
  • The society for computer science of the GDR - education, work, dissolution. A contribution to the history of computer science and computing technology in the GDR , 123 pages + document collection. Location: German Museum Munich.
  • New devices from ESER and SKR ; in supplement 2/1979 of the magazine Rechentechnik / datenverarbeitung, Verlag DIE WIRTSCHAFT, ISSN  0374-2385 Index 31269/1331; Pp. 1 to 8.
  • Computer Development in Conditions of Socialist countries, in EURO IFIP 1979, Participiants Edition; North-Holland Publishing Company 1979, pp. 3-12.
  • Computer developments in the GDR framework conditions and results. In: GI-Edition Lecture Notes in Informatics (LNI) Informatics in the GDR - a balance. Volume T-1, ISBN 978-3-88579-420-2 , pp. 40-54.
  • Four decades of computing technology in the GDR , GI Mitteilungen, newsletter of the Society for Computer Science of the GDR, Volume 4, 1989, pp. 147–152
  • Development and application of computer science and computing technology in the GDR 1964 to 1989, Heinz-Nixdorf-Museum Paderborn 1994
  • Cooperation / cooperation on computer science and computer technology between the states of the Warsaw Treaty , Heinz-Nixdorf-Museum Paderborn 1994
  • Framework conditions for computer developments in the area of Comecon, FifF Kommunikation magazine, March 2005, pp. 52–56
  • VEB Kombinat Robotron, Dresden headquarters, Dresden City Archives 2006, online

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heiko Weckbrodt, Technically top in the east, cheap brand in the west , interview with Merkel, Oiger Blog, published September 2, 2011
  2. ↑ Reinhard Delau: The new from the past. (= Article series '89), Neues Deutschland from August 12, 2019, p. 3.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Gerhard Merkel: VEB Kombinat Robotron. Industrial History Working Group and Dresden City Archives, 2005 - with a short biography of the author p. 8.
  4. ↑ Gerhard Merkel: Methodology of mechanical engineering as the basis for their teaching. Dissertation, Technical University of Dresden, Faculty for Vocational Education and Cultural Studies, Dresden 1959.
  5. ↑ Werner Kriesel , Hans Rohr, Andreas Koch: History and future of measurement and automation technology. VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1995, pp. 115-127, ISBN 3-18-150047-X .
  6. ↑ Spiegel 44/1969, computers from the West
  7. ↑ ES 1040
  8. ↑ ESER organization
  9. ^ The members of the Dresden district leadership of the SED. In: Sächsische Zeitung of March 30, 1976, February 13, 1979, February 24, 1981 and February 21, 1984.
  10. ↑ Gerhard Merkel: Design principles of information technology and the production process organization of microelectronics. Habilitation thesis (dissertation B), Technical University Karl-Marx-Stadt 1986.
  11. ↑ Gerhard Merkel . Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on May 6, 2015.
  12. ↑ Highest awards for the GDR national holiday . In: Neues Deutschland, October 2, 1979, p. 4.
  13. ↑ High awards given . In: Neues Deutschland , April 22, 1978, p. 5.
personal data
SURNAME Merkel, Gerhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Merkel, Curt Gerhard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German computer scientist and science organizer
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Chemnitz