Julius Pohlig
Julius Pohlig (born November 17, 1842 in Leichlingen , † January 30, 1916 in Cologne ) was a German engineer and entrepreneur . He is considered to be the pioneer of cable car construction .
Youth and education
His parents were the baker Johann Peter (1799–1875) and Anna Margaretha Pohlig nee. Rehborn (1805-1863). Pohlig studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Karlsruhe and after graduating in 1865 worked as a consulting engineer at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Hütte in Troisdorf . In 1867 he then switched to the private building trade school in Siegen as a teacher of mathematics, mechanical engineering and mill construction. After the school was closed, he taught mining machines, mechanics and technical drawing at the Royal Mountain School in Siegen. Here he was still registered as a teacher in 1878 and at that time he attempted evaporation with steam engines.
Entrepreneur
The first cableway was constructed by Adam Wybe in 1644. The invention of the modern cableway equipped with suspension and pulling ropes is known as Theobald Obach , Franz Fritz Freiherr von Dücker (1827–1892; received a patent for the two-cable lift in 1861), Julius Pohlig and Adolf Bleichert closely linked. Pohlig built its first material ropeway in Siegerland as early as 1873 and specialized in the construction of ropeways for use in transporting coal and ore in the mines. In 1874 he founded the company “J. Pohlig in Cologne and Theobald Obach in Vienna ”, which he named“ J. Pohlig AG ”continued. In the meantime, Pohlig moved to Cologne in 1890 , where the Pohlig factory in Cologne-Zollstock was built in 1894 according to plans by the architect Peter Gaertner and expanded in 1912. Initially, the plant built material ropeways such as the slag cable car that went into operation in April 1900 for the Bremer Hütte in Geisweid . Because of the wire ropes used in cable cars, he cooperated with the Cologne Carlswerk , a subsidiary of Felten & Guilleaume, from around 1900 . In 1901 a branch was established in Berzdorf . In 1903 Pohlig left the company after an unsuccessful foreign engagement. Georg Zapf, a manager of the Carlswerk, which had been purchasing shares in J. Pohlig AG since 1929, became the new board member. His son Julius Pohlig junior also rose to the board in 1903.
In 1927 Ernst Heckel GmbH had to be sold to the Cologne Carlswerk due to financial difficulties, and in 1933 Pohlig was also taken over by the Carlswerk. When the Leipzig company Adolf Bleichert & Co. went bankrupt in June 1932 , the Carlswerk founded Bleichert Transportanlagen GmbH as a rescue company in Cologne that same year . Carlswerk was thus a partner in the three largest European ropeway manufacturers. Than in June 1946, the Luxembourg Arbed - Group with 67.08% majority shareholding in the Carlswerk- parent company acquired Felten & Guilleaume, he was therefore also the majority shareholder of these three cable car company. From 1949, the Cologne plant was rebuilt by Wilhelm Heidrich and Leonhard Arenz. In 1962 there was a merger with the Cologne-based Bleichert Transportanlagen GmbH to form Pohlig-Heckel-Bleichert (PHB) , which became one of the largest cable car manufacturers in the world and now had a factory site in Zollstock of 42,840 m². PHB has been 97% owned by the ARBED group since 1977. The unprofitable Berzdorf plant closed in March 1979. In May 1980 the merger with Weserhütte to form PHB-Weserhütte took place , in December 1987 it went bankrupt due to losses. After the factory was shut down in 1988, there was a compulsory settlement in 1989 . The ropeway division was taken over by Doppelmayr . Between 1994 and 1996 the new headquarters of Gothaer Versicherungsbank was built on the fallow PHB site .
Built cable cars (selection)
Most of the systems built by Pohlig received national attention. J. Pohlig AG achieved worldwide fame with its variety of systems produced for high-quality conveying technology for any application. The company manufactured internationally known cable cars such as the world's first cable car in 1908 in Hong Kong for public transport on Beacon Hill, with the opening of the second section on January 18, 1913, the cable car to the Sugar Loaf in Rio de Janeiro followed , 1914 construction a cable car for the construction of the Liblar-Dernau railway line ( Strategischer Bahndamm ) in Marienthal, 1926 a cable car to the Bürgeralpe near Mariazell , 1929 to Table Mountain in Cape Town , 1951 the Wallbergbahn , 1954 the cable car in Rüdesheim am Rhein or 1955 the conversion of the cable car to the Zugspitze . In 1955 Pohlig built the Ehrenbreitstein chairlift in Koblenz to the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress .
In March 1957, the Cologne cable car was the first facility to cross a river in Europe. On April 27, 1961 the Untersbergbahn opened , in the same year the Waldecker Bergbahn , in 1970 the Wendelstein cable car was completed, in 1972 the Hochgratbahn was built in the Allgäu.
Honors
In 1912 Julius Pohlig was awarded an honorary doctorate (as Dr.-Ing. E. h. ) By the Technical University of Karlsruhe . A bust in the old city park of Leichlingen still commemorates the son of the city, the bronze portrait was created by the sculptor Kurt Arentz . In Cologne and Berlin streets were named in honor of Pohlig.
Web links
- Extensive information and images on www.cable-car.de ( Memento from November 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
literature
- Joachim Bauer, Carmen Kohls: Cologne under French and Prussian rule . In: Werner Adams, Joachim Bauer (Hrsg.): From the botanical garden to urban green - 200 years of Cologne green . Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7616-1460-8 , ( Stadtspuren - Denkmäler in Köln 30).
- Werner Flechtner: Leichlinger Heads and Characters 4: Julius Pohlig (1842-1916) , ed. from Sparkasse Leichlingen, Leichlingen 1991
- Ulrich S. Soénius: Pohlig, Julius. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 589 ( digitized version ).
- Ulrich S. Soénius, Jürgen Wilhelm (Ed.): Kölner Personen-Lexikon . Greven, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-7743-0400-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ulrich S. Soénius, Kölner Personen-Lexikon , 2008, p. 427
- ↑ Carnall. W. Hertz, magazine for mining, smelting and salt works in the Prussian state , Volume 26, 1878, p. 39
- ↑ Eugen Czitary, Ski lifts , 1962, p 5
- ↑ Neue Deutsche Biographie , Volume 20, 2001, p. 589 (see literature )
- ^ Manfred Hötzel, Stefan W. Krieg: Adolf Bleichert and his work. Entrepreneur biography, industrial architecture, company history. 2002, p. 117, footnote 21.
- ^ André Dumont, Alexander Hess: The Rheinpark and its history. From the fort to the Volkspark. In: Joachim Bauer, Carmen Kohls: Cologne under French and Prussian rule. In: Werner Adams, Joachim Bauer (ed.): From the botanical garden to the urban green. 200 years of Cologne Green. 2001, p. 229.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pohlig, Julius |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German engineer and entrepreneur |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 17, 1842 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Leichlingen (Rhineland) |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 30, 1916 |
| Place of death | Cologne |