Horst Peschel

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Karl Horst Peschel (born September 29, 1909 in Dresden ; † April 11, 1989 there ) was a German university professor of geodesy . From 1953 to 1956 he was rector of the Technical University of Dresden and then headed the Geodetic Research Institute Potsdam .

Life

Horst Peschel was born in Dresden on September 29, 1909. His father, the surveying technician Adolf Peschel, died in 1927. In order to secure the family's income, Horst Peschel already worked on surveying tasks before he graduated from the Annenschule in Dresden . From 1928 he studied geodesy at the Technical University of Dresden. With his diploma as a surveyor , Horst Peschel stayed at the university in 1932 as a scientific assistant to his teacher Paul Werkmeister . Four years later he received his doctorate in engineering.

From 1936 he was a trainee lawyer in the Land Surveying Office of Saxony and was promoted to assessor in 1938 . After the second state examination, he held lectures and exercises for the first time in front of students of geodesy, architecture and forestry at the chair of surveying in Dresden from 1938. During these years he also joined the NSDAP . He later regretted this step very much when he looked deeper behind the facades. After the war he no longer joined any party, but was later highly valued as a professor in GDR government circles.

From 1939 to 1945 Peschel was drafted for military service in artillery surveying, but was repeatedly released to perform teaching duties at the university and as a publicly appointed surveyor for major surveying work for the Reichsbahn.

In the bombing raids on Dresden he lost his apartment and office, which is why he first lived with his family in Strießen near Großenhain in 1946 . As an employee, he took over the management of a surveying office in Dresden.

In 1950 the Technical University of Dresden appointed him professor for land surveying and land registry and in 1952 director of the Geodetic Institute. From 1953 to 1956 he was rector of the TH and then for two years deputy to his successor Kurt Pommer . During Peschel's rectorate, the reconstruction of the university building, which had been badly damaged by bombing, was largely completed and the new building continued. He enjoyed a great reputation among the students.

Horst Peschel (left) in conversation with Walter Ulbricht (right) and Hermann Pöschel (center), 22nd meeting of the GDR State Council in March 1970

The establishment of the Central Office for International Documentation of Geodesy at the Geodetic Institute in 1956 was his work. From 1963 to 1968, in addition to his teaching post in Dresden, he was acting head of the Geodetic Institute in Potsdam . After the third university reform , Horst Peschel was head of the newly formed geodesy department from 1969 to 1974. Fritz Deumlich then took over this position .

On September 30, 1974, Peschel retired as Professor of Spheroidal and Physical Geodesy . During his 24 years as a university professor, he had a major impact on geodesy training in Dresden and expanded the Geodetic Institute into an important teaching and research facility.

Horst Peschel had been married to Annelies Richter since 1939 and had four children, three of them with his wife. He died unexpectedly on April 11, 1989 in Dresden.

Memberships and honorary positions

As a scientist and talented organizer, Peschel was heavily involved in the state research council , in the university and technical school council and in the Academy of Sciences of the GDR . For the academies of the socialist countries he coordinated the subject area "Cosmic Physics" and in two IAG commissions the European triangular network RETrig and the geodetic bibliography .

In 1950 he was one of the initiators of the surveying committee at the Chamber of Technology and some of its working groups. In 1952 he was a co-founder of the trade journal " Vermessungstechnik " and in 1960 of the Society for Photogrammetry of the GDR. From 1959 to 1974 Peschel headed the Chamber of Technology and became its honorary president in 1974.

From 1963 he headed the National Committee for Geodesy and Geophysics of the Academy (until 1984) and was GDR chief delegate in the IUGG and the ICSU .

He was a founding member of the Society for Photogrammetry in the GDR (GfPhDDR) founded in Dresden in 1960 .

Horst Peschel was also an internationally recognized expert. From 1952 to 1967 he was a full member of the German Geodetic Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . Horst Peschel played a major role in the GDR's independent membership in the International Union for Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) and the International Association for Geodesy (IAG) in 1963 . Until 1983 he worked in the IAG as President of the Bibliography Commission and from 1984 in its nomination committee.

Awards

Horst Peschel received the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver in 1956 and in gold in 1974 and in 1984 with a bar of honor , in 1961 the Order of Labor Banner , in 1969 the honorary title of Honored Technician of the People , in 1973 the National Prize of the GDR III. Class, 1978 the price of the Technical University of Dresden level one, 1984 the Johannes Stroux Medal of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR and the Ernst Abbe Medal of the Chamber of Technology . In 1982 Peschel became an honorary senator of the Technical University of Dresden .

Services

As a scientist, his preference was in the field of geometric height measurement. His research led to a practical motorized precision leveling system that is also used internationally . For this Horst Peschel received the National Prize of the GDR III in 1973 . Class.

Works

  • Investigations of the indirect distance measurement with the application of theodolites and tangent screw instruments for micrometric angle measurement. Doctorate, Dresden 1936, 101 pages.
  • German adaptation PS Sakatow: Textbook of higher geodesy. Berlin 1957.
  • German version of NA Urmajew: Spheroid Geodesy. Berlin 1958.
  • German version MS Molodenski : Basic terms of geodetic gravimetry. Berlin 1958.
  • Technical progress in transport and the joint work of the Chamber of Technology. Berlin 1960.
  • Arthur Weichold, Horst Peschel: Wilhelm Gotthelf Lohrmann: Life picture of an outstanding geodesist, topographer, astronomer, meteorologist and promoter of technology in science and practice in the first half of the 19th century. Barth, Leipzig 1985.

See also

literature

  • Horst Rößler: From the history of the Geodetic Institute of the Technical University of Dresden . In: Technische Universität Dresden (Hrsg.): Series of publications by the Geodetic Institute of the Technische Universität Dresden . tape 1 , 2011 (28 pp., Tu-dresden.de [PDF; accessed on April 17, 2017]).
  • Repentance instead of loyalty . In: Der Spiegel . No. 8 , 1963 ( online - Feb. 20, 1963 ).
  • Heinz Kautzleben and Günter Leonhardt: The Dresden geodesist Horst Peschel 1909–1989 . In: Leibniz-Sozietät (Ed.): Meeting reports of the Leibniz-Sozietät . tape 104 , 2009, p. 107–113 (6 pp., Leibnizsozietaet.de [PDF; accessed on April 17, 2017]).
  • Harry Waibel : Servant of many masters. Former Nazi functionaries in the Soviet Zone / GDR. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-63542-1 , p. 245.
  • Uwe Fraunholz:  Peschel, Karl Horst . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Prof. Dr. Herbert Ehrlich: Yes, the 1953 matriculation, it will not be forgotten , alumni report with photo.
  2. ↑ J. Albertz: 100 Years of the German Society for Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation e. V., PFG, year 2009, issue 6, p. 535.
personal data
SURNAME Peschel, Horst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Peschel, Karl Horst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geodesist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 1989
Place of death Dresden