Heinrich Wittmann

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Heinrich Ernst August Wittmann (born November 7, 1889 in Schwetzingen ; † February 22, 1967 in Karlsruhe ) was a civil engineer and professor at the TH Karlsruhe (KIT) with a focus on hydraulic engineering .

youth

After attending a higher school for boys in Schwetzingen and then switching to a secondary school in Mannheim , where he graduated from high school in 1907 , he took a course in civil engineering at the TH Karlsruhe. During his studies he joined the Tulla fraternity in Karlsruhe . After successfully completing his engineering degree, Wittmann did a year of voluntary military service. He then completed an engineering internship at the railway construction inspection in Mannheim before he was offered a job as a site manager for the expansion of the Kiel Canal . With the beginning of the First World War and his conscription as a soldier, his professional career ended for the time being.

Act

After the end of the war, Wittmann returned to his old place of work, the Railway Construction Inspectorate in Mannheim, as a scientific assistant , gained further experience at the Karlsruhe Railway Construction Inspection, and then completed his practical training at the Rhine Construction Inspection in Karlsruhe after his appointment as a government master builder.

In the same year he switched to the higher technical service as a civil servant in the Baden water and road construction administration at the Donaueschingen water and road construction authority , but returned to the Karlsruhe road construction department a year later as an expert for the various proposals for the canalization of the Upper Rhine stretch of Strasbourg - Basel back. From 1923 to 1925 at the Freiburg Rhine Construction Office and again from 1925 to 1928 at the Water and Road Construction Directorate in Karlsruhe, Wittmann remained connected to questions about the correction of the water in the Upper Rhine . With the experience of his investigations from this time he received his doctorate in 1927 with the dissertation The influence of the correction of the Rhine between Basel and Mannheim on the bed load movement of the Rhine at the TH Karlsruhe with Theodor Rehbock to the doctor of engineering .

As an expert on issues of water management , Wittmann also made a name for himself beyond Baden's borders and so he was consequently appointed to the waterways department of the Reich Ministry of the Interior in October 1928 with simultaneous appointment as government building officer , where he headed the department for the Rhine and Danube until 1934 .

Research and Teaching

After Theodor Rehbock's retirement , Wittmann was appointed as his successor on April 1, 1934, as professor for hydraulic engineering and water management and director of the Theodor Rehbock river engineering laboratory at the TH Karlsruhe. Already in the academic years from 1935 to 1937 he held the office of rector and at the same time became a member of the city council in Karlsruhe from 1935. According to Wittmann, he applied for this mandate at the instigation of the then Lord Mayor of Karlsruhe, Friedrich Jäger . As a member he was a member of the councilors' college until the end of World War II .

Despite these obligations, Wittmann did not neglect his self-imposed tasks in all areas of water management to improve the structural design of large dam, shipping and hydropower plants. In 1937 Wittmann joined the NSDAP . In 1947, he was classified as a fellow traveler in an arbitration chamber procedure and sentenced to a fine.

Under the most difficult conditions, Wittmann headed the institute from 1945 with two scientific assistants under the name of the Bizonal Office of the Administration for Transport, Headquarters of Inland Shipping in Offenbach, Research Institute for Hydraulic, Earth and Foundation Engineering in his own house. Not until 1948 did the research and working conditions for Wittmann improve with the move to the telegraph barracks. Almost at the same time, with a decree of December 22, 1948, the research institute for hydraulic engineering , earthworks and foundation engineering (today the Federal Institute for Hydraulic Engineering ) was relocated from Hamburg to Karlsruhe, which Wittmann himself managed until it was taken over by the Federal Ministry of Transport in 1953.

In 1954 Wittmann succeeded in putting a new test hall into operation as an essential extension of the river engineering laboratory. Here he mainly carried out model tests in the field of lock and weir construction, hydroelectric power plants and port construction.

Although he retired in 1958 , at the request of the university management, he continued his official duties for seven years. It was not until 1965 that Peter Canisius followed him as head of the institute.

Günther Garbrecht was one of his most famous students, who received his doctorate in 1952.

He received an honorary doctorate from the TH Munich in 1958 and was also a member of the Academy of Sciences in Toulouse.

Wittmann was married to Rosa Sophie Marie Nestle since 1916. The marriage remained childless.

Works

  • The influence of the correction of the Rhine between Basel and Mannheim on the bed load movement of the Rhine , Diss. Karlsruhe 1927;
  • Future tasks of the German water management , Karlsruhe 1934;
  • The river engineering laboratory of the Technical University of Karlsruhe , 1935;
  • Tulla , Honsell , Roebuck. Life pictures of three hydraulic engineers on the Upper Rhine , Berlin 1949;
  • Karlsruhe oil port. Model tests over the harbor entrance , Karlsruhe 1959 (= report of the river engineering laboratory of the Technical University of Karlsruhe).

literature

  • Michael Grüttner : Biographical Lexicon on National Socialist Science Policy , Synchron, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 3-935025-68-8 , p. 185.
  • Adolf Ludin : Professor Dr.-Ing., Dr.-Ing. E. h. Heinrich Wittmann, 70 years old , in: Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University Fridericiana Karlsruhe (Ed.): From teaching and research. Treatises and reports, No. 3 (1959), pp. 16-22;
  • Max Breitenöder : Professor Heinrich Wittmann † , in: Der Bauingenieur 42 (1967), p. 162.

proof

  1. ↑ a b c d René Gilbert: Heinrich Ernst August Wittmann. Stadtlexikon Karlsruhe, 2016, accessed on July 19, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Michael Grüttner: Biographical Lexicon on National Socialist Science Policy , Heidelberg 2004, p. 185.
  3. ^ Tulla fraternity. Stadtwiki Karlsruhe, accessed on July 21, 2020 .
  4. ^ Institute for Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management. Baden-Württemberg State Bibliography online , accessed on July 19, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Institute for Water and Water Development. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, accessed on July 19, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Frank Engehausen: How a “Leader of the University” was selected: The Karlsruhe Rectorate Change in 1935. History of the State Ministries in Baden and Württemberg during the National Socialist Period, January 30, 2019, accessed on July 19, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Michael Grüttner: Biographical Lexicon on National Socialist Science Policy , Heidelberg 2004, p. 185.
  8. ↑ 40 years of the Federal Institute for Hydraulic Engineering (BAW). (PDF) Federal Institute for Hydraulic Engineering, 1988, p. 2 , accessed on July 19, 2020 .
  9. ^ Katja Förster: Telegraph barracks. Stadtlexikon Karlsruhe, 2015, accessed on July 19, 2020 .
  10. ↑ 40 years of the Federal Institute for Hydraulic Engineering (BAW). (PDF) Federal Institute for Hydraulic Engineering, 1988, p. 3 , accessed on July 19, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Wittmann, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wittmann, Heinrich Ernst August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hydraulic engineer and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwetzingen
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1967
Place of death Karlsruhe