Hermann Bleibtreu (engineer)

Hermann Bleibtreu (born September 27, 1889 in Bonn , † July 15, 1977 in Richmond , Virginia ) was a German university professor of mechanical engineering .

Life

Johann Wilhelm Hermann Bleibtreu was born in Bonn in September 1889 as the son of Walter Bleibtreu and his wife Franziska Stintzing. He was the grandson of the chemist and inventor Hermann Bleibtreu (1821–1881) and the great-grandson of Leopold Bleibtreu . He attended preschool and the city high school. After graduating from a secondary school in 1908, he first did a practical year in the engineering works in Dottendorf and Grevenbroich . From 1909 to 1914 he studied mechanical engineering at the TH Berlin-Charlottenburg . In the summer of 1914, shortly before his final exams, he took a trip on the steamer Crown Princess Cecilie to New York City . Since the First World War broke out at that time , a return trip was no longer possible. Bleibtreu stayed in the USA and finally found a job with the railroad expert John R. Gould. While working in Richmond, he also met his future wife.

After working for a long time in the USA, he returned to Germany in the early 1920s and worked as a senior engineer at the Saar branch of the Association of German Ironworkers in Saarbrücken through Hermann Röchling . In parallel to his professional activity, he passed his diploma examination at RWTH Aachen University .

In the spring of 1922, Bleibtreu drew up the coal dust firing report , which was submitted to the Reich Coal Council on behalf of the technical and economic committee of experts for fuel in May 1922. Chief engineer Bleibtreu from the heating department of the Association of German Ironworkers, Saarbrücken branch, was entrusted with the reporting because until recently he had practically worked on the development of pulverized coal combustion in the United States of America. In 1929 he accepted an offer from an American company and returned to the USA with the family.

Bleibtreu was appointed full professor of mechanical engineering at the TH Darmstadt in October 1931 . He succeeded Enno Heidebroek , who moved to the TH Dresden in the same year . The professorship was linked to the function of head of the mechanical engineering laboratory II, which was located in the southern part of the basement and ground floor of the extension to the main building, which was built in 1908. In his work, Bleibtreu concentrated on vibration studies of engines and cranked shafts. At the same time, he received the order to build a coal-fired power plant in Rüsselsheim for the Opel works.

Bleibtreu had a distant relationship with National Socialism . He and his wife belonged to the Confessing Church . Like most of the professors at the TH Darmstadt, he was not a member of the NSDAP , the SA or the SS . However, for some time he was a supporting member of the SS . From 1937 to 1939 Hermann Bleibtreu was dean of the mechanical engineering, paper and gas engineering and aviation department. After a planned trip to the USA in the summer of 1939, he left the TH Darmstadt and first moved with his family to his in-laws in Richmond. He emigrated for political reasons. “Dismissed without thanks” was noted on his personal card. His discharge officially took place on August 15, 1939.

In the USA, Bleibtreu found employment relatively quickly at the Electro-Motive Diesel locomotive factory in La Grange (Illinois) . After 1942 he worked as a consulting engineer. After the Second World War, Bleibtreu kept in close contact with his colleagues in Germany. He visited Germany several times. For example, he took part in the centenary of the Portland cement works in Bonn in June 1956. Due to his technical expertise, he had intensive contact with Edmund Frohne and the Deutsche Bundesbahn . His last visit to Germany was in 1974.

Hermann Bleibtreu died in Richmond, Virginia, at the age of 88. He had spent his last years in a retirement home. He had been married to Hanna Helene Vietor (1894–1993), whom he had met in the United States during the First World War, since June 1922. The children Hildegard Anderson born Bleibtreu (1929-2010) and Hermann Karl Bleibtreu (* 1933) emerged from the marriage.

Publications

• 1920: From the development of the American power industry during the war. Dusseldorf.
• 1922: Coal dust firing: Report submitted to the Reich Coal Council on behalf of its technical and economic committee of experts for fuel use, Berlin
• 1925: Economic fundamentals and operational organization of the iron industry in the United States of America and its repercussions on heat technology, Düsseldorf.
• 1925: About modern industrial furnaces, Düsseldorf.
• 1926: From the American blast furnace and coking plant, Düsseldorf.
• 1927: Development directions in coal dust technology, Düsseldorf.
• 1928: About mild steel locomotive fire boxes with special consideration of the material and the design, Düsseldorf.
• 1928: About the use of coke oven gas in small ovens and heating machines, Düsseldorf.
• 1930: pulverized coal combustion. Berlin, 1930.
• 1932: Experience and goals in American rolling mill construction, Düsseldorf.
• 1933: Development lines in the construction of the American Siemens-Martin works, Düsseldorf.

literature

• Manfred Hampe and Gerhard Pahl (eds.): On the history of mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Düsseldorf 2008, p. 146.
• Melanie Hanel: Normality under exceptional conditions. The TH Darmstadt under National Socialism, Darmstadt 2014.
• Christa Wolf and Marianne Viefhaus: Directory of professors at TH Darmstadt, Darmstadt 1977, p. 25.