Aviation engineering school
The Engineering School for Aviation Technology ( IfL ) was a special educational institution with a boarding school that trained talented metal workers to become engineers for German aviation research and industry from 1937 to 1945. About 80% of the students came from working-class households. In contrast to the Langemarck course , which was intended to enable talented non-high school graduates to study at a university, political indoctrination was largely avoided during training at the IfL.
Historical background
While the Versailles Treaty banned the construction and construction of powered aircraft and even powered flying, gliding experienced a stormy development during the Weimar Republic . In 1924, pioneers of gliding founded the Rhön-Rossitten-Gesellschaft (RRG), from which the German Research Institute for Gliding (DFS) emerged, which Walter Georgii expanded into an important research center for aviation in Germany. The lifting of the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty in 1926, but above all the arming of the Wehrmacht after the seizure of power , stimulated the demand for qualified engineers for the aviation industry.
Concept of the IfL
The aim of the IfL was to meet this need and not to fall back on the group of people who already had the entry requirements for an engineering degree, but to exhaust additional reserves. Since suitable candidates were selected from among experienced metalworkers, a very large group of people was generally considered.
The preselection was made by companies such as B. Junkers , Heinkel , Arado , Reichsbahn etc., who also had to take on a kind of guarantee for the nomination. The IfL kept the last word in the selection process and placed particular emphasis on the suitability of the candidates' character.
Formal admission requirements were a successful attendance of elementary school and vocational school, passed journeyman's or skilled worker examination and, if possible, one to two years of professional experience. Candidates should also not be married and not be older than 25 years.
Another condition for admission was membership of “ the party ” or a Nazi formation for at least two years . According to all available sources, however, the party's influence on the selection process and school operation seems to have been comparatively small. For example, the teacher was not a party member.
To enable the students to fully concentrate on their studies, the training was free of charge. With the exception of the holiday season, the students also received free accommodation, meals and pocket money during their studies. School uniforms were also free.
In order to balance the different requirements of the selected students, there was a pre-semester, which was followed by a 5-semester specialist course. The curriculum avoided specialization too early. Only after the third semester did I switch to aircraft construction or engine construction. The examination regulations for the preliminary and main examination of the state engineering schools applied.
The school operation was supplemented by a variety of sports and cultural offers. The Flight Technical Working Group of the IfL allowed, as in other engineering schools with the direction of aviation, both the construction of gliders and the practical flying.
history
The origins of the IfL can be traced back to Adolf Baeumker , who joined the Aviation Department of the Reich Ministry of Transport (RVM) in 1927 as a consultant for research and development with the task of strengthening German aviation. As early as 1931 he developed the IfL concept in discussions with the German Aviation Research Institute (DVL), Mathias Bös from the Aachen Aviation Science Association and Walter Fritsch , then a lecturer at the Dortmund Engineering School. "In 1932, the creation of a special school for the aviation department in the Ministry of Transport was finally urgently required and also feasible." Now the negotiations with the authorities concerned and the preparatory work needed another five years, until the first semester on 1 October 1937.
IfL's school sponsor was the German Research Institute for Gliding (DFS) in Griesheim , which was under the direction of Walter Georgii and had the legal form of a registered association. The IfL therefore also moved into Griesheim (Griesheim airfield ) and was run as Department 12 of the DFS. All of its costs were borne by the Aviation Department in the Ministry of Transport, later the Ministry of Aviation. The Ministry of Education had control oversight. Mathias Bös and Walter Fritsch became the head of the school. Both were students of Theodore von Kármán . Walter Gentsch was responsible for the selection of students. He had experience from retraining unemployed engineers at the Kyffhäuser Technical Center in Frankenhausen , but had also tried out essential elements of the IfL concept. The chairman of the examination committee was Prof. Georgii.
As early as 1939, the Griesheim site had to be left to the Air Force. The IfL was temporarily housed at the Schönhagen airfield and in 1940 moved to Thorn in what was then Danzig-West Prussia . The target state of classrooms, workshops, laboratories and accommodation for 450 students was only reached after about two years. Because the front was getting closer, the lessons of the winter semester 1944/45 were relocated to Stralsund to the local Hansa-Schule am Sund and in January 1945 the Thorn location was released. For the summer semester 1945 the IfL moved on to Wyk auf Föhr . Lessons continued here even after the capitulation, with the approval of the British occupying forces. At the beginning of August proper final exams could still be carried out, and the last 60 IfL graduates received their engineering certificates. On August 17, 1945, the aviation engineering school was finally closed.
Recognition of the engineering degree
There were two possible degrees at the IfL:
- "Engineer in mechanical engineering, specializing in aircraft construction"
- "Engineer of mechanical engineering, specializing in aircraft engine construction"
Since the IfL's entry into the "Reichsliste of higher technical educational institutions" was not completed at the end of the war, the commitment of the German Trade Union Federation was particularly necessary to achieve equality of the approx. 530 engineering degrees of the IfL with those of the state engineering schools (Official Journal for Berlin No. . 6/1970).
literature
- Hans Joachim Wefeld : Engineers from Berlin. 300 years of technical education . Haude & Spener, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-7759-0312-7 .
- Hans Leipner (Hrsg.): Chronicle of the engineering school for aviation technology . Self-published, Sindelfingen 1993.
- A. Wilhelm Neuberger: The engineering school for aviation technology. 1937 to 1945. Idea, development and history. (Darmstadt, Thorn, Stralsund, Wyk auf Föhr) . Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt 2005, ISBN 3-8334-3051-6 .
- Peter Engels: The aviation engineering school . In: Andreas Göller, Annegret Holtmann (Hrsg.): A century of aviation history between tradition, research and landscape management. The August Euler Airfield in Darmstadt-Griesheim . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-534-22153-0 , ( University edition ).
Web links
- Table of contents by: A. Wilhelm Neuberger, The Engineering School for Aviation Technology
- Table of contents by: Andreas Göller, Annegret Holtmann (Hrsg.), A century of aviation history between tradition, research and landscape management .