Hellmuth Walter

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Hellmuth Walter (born August 26, 1900 in Wedel near Hamburg ; † December 16, 1980 in Upper Montclair (New Jersey) ) was a German inventor and submarine developer.

Life

After graduating from the Technical University of Charlottenburg in Berlin in 1923 , he initially worked as a turbine designer at the Vulkan shipyard in Hamburg. He later developed anti-aircraft weapons for the Reichswehr .

From 1930 he worked at the Germania shipyard in Kiel, where he began to implement his idea of ​​the gas turbine as a drive for submarines ( Walter drive ). In 1935 Walter founded the Hellmuth Walter engineering office in Kiel , initially with one, and in 1936 with 300 employees. In 1939/1940 the company, now registered as Walter KG, moved into new production facilities on Tannenberg in the immediate vicinity of the Kiel Canal . With the Walter R 1-203 rocket engine, Walter developed the drive for the Heinkel He 176 and the DFS 194 as well as its further development Walter HWK 109-509 for the Messerschmitt Me 163 and the Bachem Ba 349 "Natter". He also supplied the fuel pumps for the A4 large rocket and the launch catapults for the Fi 103 bomb. He developed the starter rocket Walter HWK 109-500 and also torpedo drives . In 1945 the factories employed 5,000 people, including slave labor .

After the Second World War , the plant was placed under British control and Walter and some of his employees were brought to England in October 1946 to continue working on the Walter drive. In 1949 he returned to Germany and the plant was returned to his management. But a few months later he moved to the USA . There he worked at the Worthington Corporation in Harrison (New Jersey) .

In 1956 he founded Hellmuth Walter GmbH in Kiel , where in 1967 a civilian submarine with Walter propulsion called "Stint" was designed.

literature

  • Ciampaglia Giuseppe: Il Prof. Helmut Walter e l'acqua ossigenta . Rivista Italiana di Difesa. October 2013.
  • Karl Günther Strecker: From the Walter submarine to the wafer machine . In: "Contributions to Peace Research and Security Policy". Volume 2, Köster Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89574-438-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e Renate Dopheide: Kiel, May 1945: British troops occupy the navy city. Volume 83 of communications from the Society for Kiel City History, Society for Kiel City History, ISBN 978-3-937719-58-0 , pages 74 to 83
personal data
SURNAME Walter, Hellmuth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German inventor and submarine developer
DATE OF BIRTH August 26, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Wedel , Germany
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1980
Place of death Upper Montclair , USA