Karl Thürnau (civil engineer)

Karl Thürnau (born July 28, 1877 in Hanover , † September 29, 1944 in Darmstadt ) was a German civil engineer and university professor .

Life

Karl Heinrich August Thürnau was born in Hanover in 1877 as the son of Heinrich Thürnau and Auguste Goggert. He came from a modest background. He attended school and a grammar school in his hometown and after graduating from high school he studied civil engineering at the TH Hannover . He successfully completed his studies in the spring of 1902 with a diploma. From December 1901 he was government construction manager for water and road construction. In 1906 he became a government builder.

In February 1910, Thürnau discovered the connection between the seepage from Oder and Sieber in the southern Harz and the Rhume spring . He provided the proof with the help of hydrological investigations by coloring the water.

At the end of 1912 he was promoted to Dr.-Ing. PhD. From 1913 to 1919 he was a board member of the Edersee Dam Association . Then he was appointed government and building councilor and board member of the water engineering office in Kassel.

On October 1, 1920, he became a full professor of engineering at the TH Darmstadt . Here he succeeded Alexander Koch (1852–1923). From 1926 to 1928 he was dean of the civil engineering department at the TH Darmstadt.

Thürnau succeeded in building a larger research institute for hydraulic engineering in its own building outside the inner city campus of the TH Darmstadt. This replaced the facility created in 1904 in the basement of the east wing of the old main building. From 1932 to 1934 a hydraulic engineering research institute was created in the rooms of the former parade hall on Elisabethenstrasse in Darmstadt.

The research institute for hydraulic engineering with an area of ​​approx. 90 by 300 meters was opened on October 1st, 1934. Gutters, models and a high-pressure system were available as test facilities. Thürnau initially operated the research institute until his retirement in September 1939. Since the professorship was not filled again at the beginning of the Second World War, Thürnau temporarily continued the business until July 1941.

Karl Thürnau's behavior under National Socialism is controversial. This relates both to his behavior when his colleague Adolf Kleinlogel was dismissed in 1935 and to his participation in the expert committee of the Reich Commissioner for the reunification of Austria with the German Reich, who considered the annexation of Austria to the German Reich as an “economic rationalization and modernization project “Grasped.

Karl Thürnau died at the age of 67 in September 1944 as a result of the devastating bomb attack on Darmstadt a few days earlier . The hydraulic engineering research institute was also completely destroyed in this attack. Thürnau had been married to Erna Lindemann since 1910.

Publications

• 1913: The connection of the Rhumequelle with the Oder and Sieber, Berlin.
• 1936: Die Wasserbauversuchsanstalt, in: Hundert Jahre Technische Hochschule Darmstadt - An Image of Their Becoming and Working, Darmstadt 1936, pp. 78–83.

literature

• Alexander Koch: The hydraulic engineering laboratory, in: The Grand Ducal Technical University of Darmstadt 1896–1908, Darmstadt 1908, pp. 69–72.
• Christa Wolf and Marianne Viefhaus: Directory of professors at TH Darmstadt, Darmstadt 1977, p. 206.
• Melanie Hanel: Normality under exceptional conditions. The TH Darmstadt under National Socialism, Darmstadt 2014.