Hans Christoph von Seherr-Thoss

Hans Christoph Graf von Seherr-Thoss (born October 13, 1918 in Potsdam , † July 17, 2011 in Unterhaching ) was a German engineer , journalist and historian . He was mainly known for his work as archivist and librarian of the ADAC , which he carried out from 1954 to 1983.

Life

He was a scion of the old Silesian noble family Seherr-Thoss and attended high school in Ettal Abbey and the Liegnitz Knight Academy . He was interested in motor racing from an early age . He had been keeping his black books since 1936 : notebooks in which he collected all the data on important car and motorcycle races. After the Second World War, from 1949 to 1952, he studied mechanical engineering and automotive engineering at a predecessor institution at the Munich University of Applied Sciences . His degree was later awarded the academic degree Dipl.-Ing. (FH) recognized.

After von Seherr-Thoss had already written for the Schlesische Volkszeitung at the age of 16 , he worked as an author for the Süddeutsche Zeitung after graduating . In 1954 he also began to rebuild the ADAC library that was destroyed in the war. He acquired specialist literature and magazines all over Germany, after all the ADAC library again comprised around 20,000 volumes. Together with his wife Therese, he cataloged all of these books. In 1958, under his leadership, the ADAC was the first German automobile club to set up a scientific service that supervised university work and provided patent information.

In 1983 von Seherr-Thoss retired after 29 years working for the ADAC.

Publications

Seherr-Thoss has published numerous articles and books on motorsport. In 1965 his first monograph was published, The Development of Gear Technology . An editorial committee of the industry and the VDA commissioned him with the documentation Die deutsche Automobilindustrie , which appeared in 1974 and was published for the second time in 1979. For this book he received the 2009 Autobuch Author Award . In addition, the book 75 Years of ADAC was published in 1978 and in 1988 the volume Joints and Joints . This was published in an English translation in 1992 and in a Chinese translation in 1998. From 1970 he also worked for the Neue Deutsche Biographie , for which he wrote over 200 biographies, mostly about people from the field of German vehicle construction.

Fonts

• (with Stefan Fronius): The development of gear technology. Tooth shapes and load capacity calculation. Springer Verlag, Berlin et al. 1965. (undated reprint as digitized version, ISBN 978-3-642-92906-9 )
• (with Wolfgang Herbst): Oldtimer. Yesterday's automobiles. Herrnberger, Munich 1965. (2nd edition 1966)
• The German automotive industry. Documentation from 1886 until today. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-421-02284-4 . (2nd corrected and expanded (updated) edition 1979 under the same ISBN)
• 75 years ADAC 1903–1978. Diary of an automobile club. ADAC-Verlag, Munich 1978. (without ISBN, not sold through bookshops)
• (as editor): Two men, one star. Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz in pictures, data and documents. VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1984, ISBN 3-18-400851-7 . (= Classic of technology ) (annotated reprint of a publication by Daimler-Benz AG from 1950/1953; 2nd edition 1988)
• The historical and technical development of commercial vehicles from Büssing. In: MAN Nutzfahrzeuge GmbH (Ed.): H. Büssing. Man, work, inheritance. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1986, ISBN 3-525-13175-5 , pp. 201-300.
• The technology of MAN commercial vehicle construction. In: Wilfried Lochte (Ed.): Achievement and way. On the history of MAN commercial vehicle construction. 1991.
• (with F. Schmelz and Erich Aucktor): Joints and cardan shafts. Calculation, design, applications. Springer-Verlag, Berlin et al. 1988, ISBN 3-540-18322-1 . (2nd expanded edition 2002; English-language editions under the title Universal joints and driveshafts )
• Dictionary of Famous Personalities in the Automobile World. Pentland Press / Ivy House Publishing Group, Raleigh 2002, ISBN 1-57197-333-8 .

Awards

• 1966: Premio Giornalistico Internationale Vincenzo Florio
• 1978: Ewald Kroth gold medal for ADAC motorsport documentation
• 1983: silver Christophorus medal from ADAC
• 1999: Hall of Fame of the American Biographical Institute
• 2009: Autobuch author award

swell

• Short biography in the list of authors in: MAN Nutzfahrzeuge GmbH (Ed.): H. Büssing. Man, work, inheritance. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1986, ISBN 3-525-13175-5 , p. 302.

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans Christoph von Seherr-Thoss in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Erik Eckermann: Count von Seherr-Thoss died. In: Mercedes-Benz Oldtimer-Newsticker , last accessed on March 31, 2019
2. ↑ ^{a b} meinklassiker.com: Graf Seherr-Thoss died  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.