Hubert Hoff

Hubert Hoff (born February 15, 1870 in Essen , † October 11, 1964 in Bad Mergentheim ) was a German mechanical engineer and metallurgist and rector of RWTH Aachen University .

Life

After graduating from high school in 1887, Hubert Hoff studied at the former Royal Prussian Mechanical Engineering and Metallurgy School in Duisburg, today's University of Duisburg , the subject of mechanical engineering and metallurgy with a degree in engineering in 1896. After his doctorate and habilitation and activities as chief engineer from 1889 to 1905 at Rheinstahl in Duisburg and from 1905 to 1912 at the ironworks in Dudelange and from 1912 to 1920 as director of the Esch an der Alzette ironworks , of which the last two years also director of the ironworks department of the Eschweiler Mining Association , and subsequent two years as senior director of the Bismarckhütte in Upper Silesia, Hoff followed a call to RWTH Aachen University, where on April 1, 1923 he took over the field of mechanical engineering and construction at the faculty for materials management and metallurgy as a full professor. His main area of ​​work was the research of rolling processes and refractory bricks. Hoff, together with the metallurgist and later rector Paul Röntgen, played a key role in the opening of an institute for rock metallurgy affiliated with RWTH Aachen University in 1928, the management of which was initially taken over by metallurgist Hermann Salmang .

Hoff's role in the National Socialist state

From 1928 to 1930 Hoff was elected as the successor to Robert Hans Wentzel as rector of the RWTH. On April 29, 1933, Hoff was again available as a candidate for a new election of the rectorate, senate and dean's office ordered by the Reich Commissioner in the Ministry of Education Bernhard Rust , in which there were no regular elections, if the eligible voters opposed the incumbent rector Paul Röntgen should speak out, since the members of this body were still in favor of continuity and against National Socialism at that time. Since Röntgen was able to stay in office, Hoff was finally elected Dean of Faculty IV. Hoff, who was not a party member and also did not participate in other National Socialist associations, tried to largely avoid the political trend. Nevertheless, for reasons of university policy, it was unavoidable for him that he was busy with Adolf Wallichs , Felix Rötscher , Hermann Bonin and Robert Hans Wentzel in the so-called Denunciation Committee with the review of denunciation cases, those of the ASTA ( General Student Committee ) and the Student leaders reported on allegedly communist or anti-regime ideas and behavior by colleagues and students. By forwarding these reports to Rust, the non-Aryan professors Otto Blumenthal , Arthur Guttmann , Walter Maximilian Fuchs , Ludwig Hopf , Theodore von Kármán , Paul Ernst Levy , Karl Walter Mautner , Alfred Meusel , Leopold Karl Pick , Rudolf Ruer , Hermann Salmang and Ludwig Strauss withdrew his teaching license from September 1933 under the law to restore the civil service . In 1933/34 he was also a member of the matriculation committee , which was to reduce the proportion of Jewish students from 5 to 1.5% and later even further. With his retirement in 1935, Hoff was able to avoid further involvement in the political requirements and burdens of the regime.

Hoff distinguished himself as the author of numerous respected academic writings, most of which he continued to write after his retirement. After his retirement, Hoff joined the Club Aachener Casino .

Honors

• In 1950 RWTH Aachen made him an honorary citizen
• In 1952 he was honored by the Clausthal mining academy with the title of honorary doctorate engineer.
• In 1959 Hoff was made an honorary senator of RWTH Aachen University “ in recognition of his successes as a researcher and academic teacher in the field of metallurgical machinery and metallurgical constructions, as well as for his services as Rector Magnificus of the university ”.
• In 1960 Hoff finally received the Grand Cross of Merit of the FRG .

Works (selection)

• About the strength properties and the tear angle of cold-rolled metals , Düsseldorf: Verlag Stahleisen, dissertation 1928
• The charging systems of the blast furnaces and their influence on the operational management ; Düsseldorf: Verlag Stahleisen, 1929
• Dynamic strain gauges and oscillographs for examining the rolling process ; Hoff / Dahl, Düsseldorf: Verlag Stahleisen, 1933
• The iron and steel works; Instructions for their planning, calculation and construction Berlin , Julius Springer, 1938
• Basics of the rolling process , Hoff / Dahl. Düsseldorf, Verlag Stahleisen, 1950
• Rolling and calibrating ; Hoff / Dahl; Düsseldorf: Stahleisen, 1954
• Observations on the Bauschinger effect on soft and medium-hard steels ; Hoff / Fischer, Düsseldorf: Verlag Stahleisen, 1958

literature

• Ulrich Kalkmann: The Technical University of Aachen in the Third Reich (1933–1945) . Verlag Mainz, Aachen 2003, ISBN 3-86130-181-4 , ( Aachener Studies on Technology and Society 4), (At the same time: Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2003), (several pages, see search index).
• Eduard Arens / Wilhelm Leopold Janssen : Club Aachener Casino Druck Metz, Aachen 1964, p. 258

Web links

• http://www.archiv.rwth-aachen.de/biographischedatenbank/ (groups of people - directors and rectors)