Herwart Opitz

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Herwart Siegfried Opitz (born June 4, 1905 in Elberfeld ; † June 15, 1978 in Aachen ) was a German engineer , professor of machine tools and industrial management and rector at RWTH Aachen University and from 1936 to 1973 head of the local machine tool laboratory (WZL) .

biography

After graduating from high school in 1923, Opitz studied mechanical engineering at the technical universities of Munich and Berlin and obtained his diploma in 1928. In between, he gained his first practical experience at Unruh & Liebig AG in Leipzig as part of the Peniger Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei AG and at the Schmidt & Co paper factory in Elberfeld , where he was already designing machines, tools and presses on his own.

After graduating, he moved to RWTH Aachen , where he was assistant to Adolf Wallich at the WZL . Opitz received his doctorate there on November 6, 1930 and completed his habilitation in 1934. After being appointed chief engineer, he initially switched to the Schiess-Defries AG tool factory in Düsseldorf for two years , before returning to Aachen on April 1, 1936 and taking up the professorship as Wallich's successor for machine tools and industrial engineering and at the same time took over the position of director of the WZL. Apart from an interruption due to the war, during which he took on a substitute professorship at the Technical University of Dresden from 1940 to 1941 due to the temporary closure of the RWTH , he remained loyal to the WZL until his retirement in 1973 and headed it from 1958/59 and from 1967 to 1969 the university as rector .

Opitz's role in the National Socialist state

Opitz joined the NSDAP as early as 1933 when it became clear to him that, in accordance with the rigorous handling of the RWTH's personnel policy by Rector Otto Gruber, a later opportunity to take over the WZL and continue university career was only possible through membership in the party. During this time Opitz put his research work in the service of the armaments industry and dealt with the quantitative and qualitative improvement of weapons production using modern machine tools. The RWTH Aachen and the WZL thus assumed a pioneering role in this area. In addition, he became a member of the National Socialist German Lecturer Association and deputy lecturer association leader. His entry into the Sturmabteilung (SA) is proven for November 1933. These activities led to the temporary suspension of his offices by the British military government on April 1, 1946. Opitz tried to disguise his "above-average political commitment in the sense of National Socialism" and "to steal his reintegration with the help of a fake KPD membership". After a denazification process , he was able to resume his offices on March 3, 1948.

Activity after 1945

With the end of the Second World War and the almost complete destruction of the Aachen facilities, Opitz made significant efforts to restore the full functionality of the WZL, which had been relocated to neighboring Belgium in the last years of the war. His most successful years in research and science followed. Opitz managed to keep the WZL constantly up to date with the latest research and development and to lead it to its current international status. Most of his more than 200 publications were created during this period. Numerous international honors and prizes testify to the enormous merits that he earned for himself and for the WZL, especially in the post-war period.

His student Walter Eversheim , who had obtained his doctorate in 1965, followed Opitz after his retirement in 1973 on the chair.

Honors (selection)

Herwart Opitz is also honored as the namesake

  • for the Herwart-Opitz Medal awarded by the VDI-Gesellschaft Produktionstechnik since 1980
  • for the Herwart-Opitz-Haus , the old building of the WZL (from the 70s) at the RWTH
  • and with the Herwart Opitz bust in the foyer of the WZL from 1979

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dissertation Between Science and Industry. Mechanisms of knowledge and technology transfer at the Aachen machine tool laboratory from 1906 to 2006 by Cornelia Kompe, presented in 2009 at the Philosophical Faculty of the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, p. 94. Retrieved on March 12, 2015.
  2. ↑ Article by Stefan Krebs / Werner Tschacher: From hero cults to overcoming scandals: Reflections on the academic culture of remembrance at RWTH Aachen University 2009 , pp. 221f., Published online on the website of the RWTH Aachen University Archives . Retrieved March 12, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Opitz, Herwart
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Opitz, Herwart Siegfried (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer
DATE OF BIRTH June 4, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH June 15, 1978
Place of death Aachen