Hugo Krüss

Andreas Hugo Krüss (born February 23, 1853 in Hamburg ; † April 27, 1925 there ) was a German physicist , entrepreneur and President of the Council of Churches .

Life and work

Hugo Krüss was the eldest son of Edmund Johann Krüss (1824–1906) and his wife Agathe Auguste Krüss, née Bauer (1829–1912). His father was an optician and headed the optical and astronomical workshop CA Krüss based in Hamburg. Hugo Krüss attended the private school Dr. Schuster and received an optical-mechanical training in the mechanical workshops Dennert & Pape in Altona and the optical-astronomical workshop CA Steinheil & Sons in Munich. In the fall of 1871 he began studying at the Munich Polytechnic and in 1872 moved to the Ludwig Maximilians University . A year later he received his doctorate there with Philipp Ludwig von Seidel and Gustav Bauer with summa cum laude. In his doctorate he dealt with the comparison of several objective constructions .

Krüss then completed his military service and worked from November 1, 1874 in his father's company, which he ran alone from 1888. Under his aegis, he expanded the product portfolio to include photometric and spectroscopic instruments and tried to improve existing devices. To this end, he made theoretical investigations that appeared in numerous magazines. The prism photometer in 1884 was one of Krüss' main constructions, a year later the compensation photometer, which reduced the color differences between two different colored light sources, an incandescent lamp tripod followed in 1887 and the polarization photometer in 1888. In 1894 he also developed several variants of photometers that worked according to a system developed by Eugen Brodhun and Otto Lummer . In the field of photometry , Krüss was one of the first to be able to cover the entire subject area practically and theoretically. He wrote several monographs that dealt with photometry and spectral analysis.

In 1920 his son Paul Krüss (1880–1976) took over the management of the company.

Engagement in politics, society and the church

In addition to his activities as an entrepreneur, Hugo Krüss was active in politics and the church. From 1898 to 1921 he was an elected member of the high school board. In this position he was particularly committed to the establishment and further development of research institutions. This included the Hamburg observatory and several institutes that were established at that time: the Botanical (1901), the Physical (1885) and the Chemical State Institute (1878) as well as the Zoological (1919) and the Geological Institute (1907). In addition, Krüss campaigned for scientific collections and laboratories to be expanded at secondary schools and for hygienic conditions to be improved.

Krüss belonged to several scientific associations such as the Natural Science Association in Hamburg, the Board of Trustees of the Hamburg Scientific Foundation , the Association for Health Care and the Society for the Promotion of Amateur Photography. He also headed the German Society for Mechanics and Optics for more than 25 years . Since 1890 he belonged to the Leopoldina , six years later became a member of the board of the Berlin Society for Scientific Photography and in 1903 a member of the commission of the Imperial Statistical Office for German export trade. Krüss has been a member of the board of the Deutsches Museum in Munich since 1904 and has been Vice President and corresponding member of the Illuminating Inquiring Society in London since 1909 . From 1913 he sat on the board of the German Lighting Technology Society and from 1914 he participated in the executive committee of the international lighting commission.

In addition, Hugo Krüss worked in the Protestant Church. From 1822 he was a member of the board of directors of St. Nikolaikirche and became its first chairman in 1919. From 1891 he took part in the synod, joined the council of churches in 1896 and took over the presidency of the council of churches in 1919. Krüss had been a member of the senior elders' college since 1899 and became its president in 1913. He also chaired the German Protestant Association. In 1886 he was one of the co-founders of the Hamburg main association of the German East Asia Mission . Krüss, who was liberal on questions of faith, tried to improve pastoral care in the suburbs.

Honors

Hugo Krüss has received many awards for his services. In 1901 he was awarded the fourth class Red Eagle Order by the King of Prussia . The award was given in particular due to the successful presentation of German mechanics and optics during the world exhibition in Paris . In 1905, Krüss was appointed Wilhelm II to the board of trustees of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt . Since 1907 Krüss has been a holder of the Royal Crown Order and since 1917 a professor appointed by the Hamburg Senate. He received an honorary theological doctorate from the University of Göttingen in 1919. He was also an honorary member of the University of Hamburg since 1921 .

The Krüßweg in Hamburg-Barmbek-Nord has been a reminder of Hugo Krüss since 1930 .

literature

• Rainer Hering: Krüss, Hugo . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 4 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0229-7 , pp. 202-203 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Hugo Krüss in the catalog of the German National Library