Gustav Ewald

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Gustav Ewald as a corps student in 1919

Gustav Ewald (born August 24, 1895 in Küstrin ; † February 1, 1983 in Friedrichshafen ) was a German entrepreneur , staff officer of the Air Force and technology historian .

Life

Gustav Ewald was born as the son of the factory owner Theodor Ewald. After attending high school in Küstrin and graduating from school he had actually going to study mechanical engineering in Berlin, but spoke up in August 1914 as a volunteer at a Küstriner Field Artillery - Regiment . He took part in the entire First World War as an active soldier, most recently as a decorated lieutenant in the reserve on the Western Front. In December 1918 he began studying mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg , where he joined the Corps Saxonia. After his father died in 1916 and when the chief engineer, who had been the manager since then, died in 1919, Ewald had to break off his studies in the third semester to take over the company Gustav Ewald Feuerlöschgeräte founded by his grandfather Gustav Ewald .

Under the leadership of Ewald, the construction of turntable ladders was discontinued and a small motorized sprayer was developed. He received several fire-fighting patents, played a major role in the DIN-FEN sub-committee for hoses and fittings of the German standards committee and began the industrial production of DIN-FEN fittings. After the bankruptcy of his company in the world economic crisis in 1929, he began in 1930 a fresh start with the industrial production of DIN-FEN-light metal fittings of high quality in large quantities. In a short time, the Ewald company developed into the largest manufacturer of fire extinguishing fittings of its time in Germany. Customers included almost all fire fighting equipment manufacturers and also some large fire departments such as the Berlin fire department . The factory in Küstrin was destroyed on February 5, 1945 and operations were not restarted after the war. Fittings with the label "EWALD-KÜSTRIN" were still in widespread use decades after the factory went down.

In 1936 Ewald returned to military service as an active officer and resigned the management of his company, but remained the owner of the company. At the Luftwaffe he was involved in communications engineering, among other things, with the practical development of radio measuring devices, the forerunners of radar. In 1938 he was a consultant for the telecommunications service at the Higher Commander of the Flak Artillery in Luftkreis II . Most recently, he was in command of the 251 Air Intelligence Regiment as a colonel until he was taken prisoner by the British in Norway in April 1945.

After being a prisoner of war and a short-term first job at the fire equipment company August Höing, Ewald was managing director of the Cologne marble works until his retirement in 1963. He then settled on Lake Constance and, as a technology historian, devoted himself to early aviation technology and air communication technology as well as the history of fire services.

Work as a technical historian

Gustav Ewald has been creating comprehensive technical documentation in the fields of aviation , air alarm and fire fighting technology since 1945 . This included every aircraft , every aircraft engine , every aircraft engine , every air detection system and fire fighting equipment that had been manufactured in Germany. The documentation includes approx. 40,000 photos and newspaper clippings as well as the technical data of the machines, in some cases also personal correspondence with pioneers in aviation and is supplemented by information about aircraft manufacturers from Europe and overseas, glider companies and fire-fighting equipment companies.

A manuscript by Ewald for a book publication "History of the German Aircraft Industry" is also in the collection that the Baden-Württemberg Economic Archives bought from his widow Gabriele Ewald von Arnauld de la Perriere in 1991 with funds from the Baden-Württemberg Cultural Heritage Foundation.

As a technology historian, he worked on various works on the history of fire fighting technology and German aircraft engine construction.

Honorary positions

Gustav Ewald had been a member of the Küstrin-Neustadt volunteer fire brigade since 1919 , most recently as chief fire chief . From 1926 to 1934 he was a volunteer teacher at the Provincial Fire Brigade School Bahrensdorf near Beeskow , where he taught the subjects of equipment and pumps , water pumping and gas protection .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Compare authority data set in the catalog of the German National Library
  2. ^ German aerospace society: yearbook . 1984, p. 1939 ( google.de [accessed on February 25, 2020]).
  3. ↑ Luftnachrichten-Regiments (PDF; 282 kB)
personal data
SURNAME Ewald, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer, entrepreneur, air force officer and technology historian
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Küstrin
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 1983
Place of death Friedrichshafen