Gustav Kemmann

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Gustav Kemmann

Gustav Kemmann (born June 10, 1858 in Mettmann ; † February 9, 1931 in Berlin ) was a German transport scientist and an important, internationally active transport expert in the early phase of the development of urban public transport. With his reports, he made a decisive contribution to the construction of the Berlin subway .

Life

From 1878 to 1882 Kemmann studied civil engineering at the Royal Building Academy in Berlin, which from 1879 belonged to the Technical University of Charlottenburg, the predecessor of today's Technical University of Berlin . During his studies he became a member of the Corps Rheno-Guestphalia Berlin . He completed his studies with the first state examination as a government building supervisor and received a travel bonus of 900 marks on June 17, 1882, among others for his good performance. The purpose of the award was a study trip to perfect the training. Immediately after the study trip, I was employed by the Royal Railway Directorate in Cologne and prepared for the second state examination in Berlin. In 1886, after completing the examination, he was appointed government master builder ( assessor ). After joining the Royal Railway Directorate in Frankfurt , Kemmann made his first study trip to England in 1887 and, on the basis of a scholarship, a second study trip to London in 1888 .

In 1889 the Prussian Minister of Public Works brought Kemmann to the railroad department of his ministry in Berlin. During this time he prepared his first traffic report on behalf of Deutsche Bank ; he examined the Argentine Northeast Railway. From 1891 to 1896, Kemmann was then employed as a councilor in the Imperial Patent Office . Kemmann's book on traffic in London was published in 1892 , which received widespread attention and made him a sought-after traffic expert .

When in 1896 Werner von Siemens approached Deutsche Bank regarding the financing of his elevated railway project, the latter turned to Kemmann and commissioned him to assess the project with regard to its economic viability, especially with regard to the expected demand. With his traffic forecast , Kemmann was breaking new ground in traffic science. On the basis of traffic counts he carried out himself , he estimated the traffic to be shifted. In addition, he determined expected new traffic from the population figures. These influencing variables, which he recognized, form the basis of the traffic forecast to this day. Kemmann's forecast for the first year of operation of the 22.5 million passengers on the main line of the Berlin elevated and underground railway was then fulfilled with astonishing precision; 22.664 million passengers were counted.

Kemmann family grave at Wilmersdorf cemetery

The main focus of activities remained the Berlin transport system . As a consultant on the supervisory board of the elevated railway company , he was involved in the development of the Berlin elevated and underground railway for three decades. He was also employed by Deutsche Bank as an expert on transport issues. He worked as a consultant and expert on the development of urban transport in Hamburg , Cologne , Vienna , Rotterdam , London, New York , Boston and Buenos Aires .

Kemmann also prepared numerous reports for the city of Berlin's first own subway, the Nordsüdbahn (today mostly U6 ), including on demand forecasts, tariffs and construction and operational equipment. He demonstrated foresight in the implementation of the automatic signaling system developed in England and successfully used there for this route against the resistance of conservative experts. But Kemmann also devoted his attention to comparatively minor railway technology problems. In 1926 he was granted a patent for the now self-evident locking devices on the doors of the subway cars with rubber strips to protect against injury , which was later marketed by the Kiekert company .

In 1930, Kemmann initiated the establishment of a trolleybus line in his hometown of Mettmann . This was the first modern trolleybus route in Germany.

Kemmann prepared his last report in 1931 for BVG , which operated underground trains, trams and buses in Berlin from 1929. It dealt with the question of tariff and transport organization. Kemmann himself described it as his most extensive report. A few days after the BVG report was completed, Kemmann died of a heart attack on February 9, 1931 while on a tram ride . He was buried in the Wilmersdorf municipal cemetery . His grave is now known as the honor grave of the city of Berlin.

Honors

Memorial plaque for Gustav Kemmann in the Alexanderplatz underground station

Kemmann received numerous honors during his lifetime. In 1911 he received the diploma of the Grand Prize of the International Railway and Transport Exhibition in Buenos Aires . In the same year he was accepted into the Berlin Architects' Association . In klosterstraße has already inaugurated a plaque at the opening in July 1913th This provides information on the development of the underground. On the right and left edges of the panel there are 16 relief portraits of personalities who contributed to the development of the Berlin subway, including Gustav Kemmann. In October 1913, Kemmann was appointed a secret building officer when the Wilmersdorf-Dahlem subway was opened . 1918 awarded him the Berlin Institute of Technology "in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the scientific knowledge of the operating and transport services and the economic conditions of existence of the urban transport and the therefrom resulting practical aid for urban transport" the honorary doctorate (Dr.-Ing. E . H.). A year later, at the suggestion of the Prussian Minister of Public Works, he was appointed an “extraordinary member of the Academy of Building”.

On the first anniversary of Kemmann's death, a plaque in memory of Gustav Kemmann was unveiled on the mezzanine level of the Alexanderplatz subway station . During the Second World War this was dismantled and melted down. Only on December 21, 2002 was a replica assembled at the same location.

In 1955 a new street in Spandau , the Kemmannweg, was named after him. Since 2006 a plaque commemorates him in Kemmann's hometown Mettmann.

Fonts (selection)

Kemmann was an important specialist writer. With his numerous publications in specialist journals, some award-winning book publications and also his reports, he has significantly enriched the specialist literature of his time. Many of the technical terms used in signaling today go back to him.

  • The traffic of London with special reference to the railways . Published by Julius Springer, Berlin 1892.
  • The Berliner Elektrizitätswerke until the end of 1896 / Planned and built by the Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft . Published by Julius Springer, Berlin 1897.
  • For the opening of the electric elevated and underground railway in Berlin . Julius Springer, Berlin 1902.
    Reduced reprint , ed. from AG Berliner U-Bahn: GVE-Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89218-077-6 .
  • London traffic according to the report of the English Commerce Office. Published by Julius Springer, Berlin 1909.
  • The rail network of Berlin and suburbs. Reprint from: The German Railway System of the Present. Published by Reimar Hobbing, Berlin 1911.
  • On the express transport policy of the big cities. Published by Ernst Wasmuth, Berlin 1911.
  • Preliminary studies for the introduction of the automatic signaling system on the Berlin elevated and underground railway. Published by Julius Springer, Berlin 1914.
  • The automatic signaling system of the Berlin elevated and subway along with some predecessors. Published by Julius Springer, Berlin 1921.
  • 50 years of the Szczecin tram 1879-1929. Szczecin 1929.
  • The Berliner Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft. Considerations on tariff and traffic design. Berlin 1931.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Address list of the Weinheimer SC. Darmstadt 1928, p. 22.
  2. ↑ Granting of travel rewards to government builders and government building managers in Prussia. In: Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung . July 1, 1882, p. 225, accessed December 11, 2012.
  3. ^ Jörg Kuhn: The memorial plaque in the Klosterstrasse underground station. In: Aris Fioretos (Ed.): Berlin over and under the earth. Alfred Grenander, the subway and the culture of the metropolis. Nicolaische, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-89479-344-9 .
  4. ↑ Guido Hartmann: With the Senator for Culture, art runs in the family . In: Die Welt of December 28, 2002.
personal data
SURNAME Kemmann, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German transport scientist
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Mettmann
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1931
Place of death Berlin