Karl Girkmann

Karl Girkmann (born March 22, 1890 in Vienna ; † July 14, 1959 there ) was an Austrian civil engineer and university professor . He was rector of the Vienna University of Technology .

Life

Karl Girkmann studied civil engineering at the Vienna University of Technology. During the First World War he worked as an officer in the railway regiment building bridges. In 1919 he passed the second state examination at the Technical University of Vienna, after which he worked as an engineer, among other things, at the bridge construction company Waagner-Biro and commissioned the AEG with the construction of overhead lines . In 1925 he received his doctorate from the Technical University of Vienna to Dr. techn. Friedrich Hartmann was one of his teachers .

From 1930 he worked as an assistant at the TH Wien, and in 1934 he qualified as a professor in the field of steel construction . From March 1, 1938 until his retirement in 1958, he was a full professor at the Institute for Elasticity and Strength of Technology at Vienna University of Technology, and in the 1948/49 academic year he was dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering. In the academic year 1949/50 he was elected rector of the Vienna University of Technology . During his term of office, a law on facilitation of the acquisition of doctorates came into force, which led to an increase in the number of doctoral candidates.

Girkmann was the author of a basic work on the calculation and construction of flat and curved surface structures as well as co-editor of the journal Österreichisches Ingenieur-Archiv . He died in 1959 at the age of 69.

Since 2008, the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Vienna University of Technology has awarded the Karl Girkmann Medal to selected personalities for their services to the Faculty. Prize winners were Johann Litzka (Dean of the Faculty, 2008), Christoph Scharff (2014), Herbert Mang (2014) and Dieter Gutknecht (2019).

Awards

• 1950: full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
• 1953: Wilhelm Exner Medal
• 1955: Honorary doctorate from the Graz University of Technology
• 1959: Gold Medal of Honor of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects

Publications (selection)

• 1931: Dimensioning of framework structures based on ideal plastic steel , Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Vienna / Leipzig, meeting reports of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna, mathematical and natural science class, department 2a, volume 140, issue 9/10, p. 679– 728
• 1932: For the calculation of cylindrical liquid containers on wind pressure , Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Vienna / Leipzig, meeting reports of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna, mathematical and natural science class, department 2a, volume 141, issue 9/10, pp. 651–672
• 1936: web plate buckling under local load attack , Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Vienna / Leipzig, meeting reports of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna, mathematical and scientific class, department 2a, volume 145, issue 1/2
• 1938 (together with Erwin Königshofer): Die Hochspannungs-Freileitungen , Springer-Verlag, Vienna / Berlin, 2nd expanded edition 1952
• 1941: Equilibrium branching on a cross-loaded pressure rod , Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Vienna / Leipzig, meeting reports of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna, mathematical-natural science class, department 2a, volume 150, issue 9/10, pp. 257-279
• 1946: Flat structures: introduction to the elastostatics of panes, plates, shells and folded structures , Springer-Verlag, Vienna, 6th edition 1986
• 1952: Elastostatics of plates and shells , Civil Engineering Reference Book, London 1952

literature

• Hermann Beer:  Girkmann, Karl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 411 ( digitized version ).
• Juliane Mikoletzky, Sabine Plakolm-Forsthuber (editor): A Collection of Extraordinary Completeness / A Collection of Unusual Completeness: Die Rektorengalerie der Technische Universität Wien / The Gallery of Rectors of the TU Wien . Festschrift 200 Years of the Technical University of Vienna, Volume 13, Vienna, Böhlau-Verlag 2015, ISBN 978-3-205-20113-7 , page 125
• Klaus Stiglat : Civil engineers and their work , Ernst and Son 2003
• Karl-Eugen Kurrer :  Girkmann, Karl . In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 . 2nd revised edition (online only).

Web links

• Karl Girkmann in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Entry about Karl Girkmann in the database of the Wilhelm Exner Medal Foundation .
2. ↑ University Alumni: Karl Girkmann . Article dated July 10, 2015, accessed March 23, 2016.
3. ^ TU personalities: Karl Girkmann . Article dated July 10, 2015, accessed March 23, 2016.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Vienna University of Technology: Awarded the Karl Girkmann Medal . Article dated April 8, 2014, accessed March 23, 2016.
5. ↑ Karl-Girkmann Medal to Univ. Prof. DI Dr. Dr. Dieter Gutknecht . Retrieved March 27, 2019.