Karl Wurmb

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Carl Wurmb, etching by Ludwig Michalek
Monument to Karl Wurmb in the Salzburger Schwarzstrasse

Karl Wurmb (born November 18, 1850 in Neumarkt im Hausruckkreis , Austria ob der Enns ; † January 30, 1907 in Vienna ) was an Austrian engineer who was largely responsible for the planning and implementation of several railway lines.

life and work

The young Karl - the spelling is also widespread until 1902/1903, Carl - was initially taught elementary school subjects at home , later he attended the royal trade school in Straubing in neighboring Bavaria. After graduating from high school , he devoted himself to studying engineering at the Zurich Polytechnic and, to round off his training, acquired manual skills in a locksmith's shop.

Wurmb began his professional career as an engineering assistant at the kk priv. Südbahngesellschaft , where he was involved in the construction of the Brennerbahn and the routing of the Pustertalbahn . In 1876 he entered the service of the Imperial and Royal Directorate for Railway Construction in the Ministry of Commerce. In 1878 he was there with preparatory work for a hydropower plant on the Krka near Šibenik in Dalmatia . During the construction of the route Villach - Tarvis the Imperial State Railways he already worked as a foreman, in consequence, for 1879 by the Imperial Council decided on and from 1880 to built Arlbergbahn ; with this, especially with the Arlberg tunnel , he brought in his own suggestions particularly intensively. In 1882 Wurmb was seriously injured during driving work on the west side of the tunnel; after his recovery he took over the construction management in Bludenz . The Arlbergbahn was opened in 1884.

Another important step in his career was when he joined the kk Directorate for State Railways in Vienna in 1883. At that time, they were intensively concerned with the problem of a western Alpine crossing, which was to connect the west and northwest of the Danube Monarchy with Trieste . Their lines should lead over the Hohe Tauern , the Julian Alps and the Karawanken . To this end, Wurmb carried out the alignment of several existing designs on the Tauern and was subsequently assigned to the study office. He then worked in the office for superstructure and station systems in the kk general directorate of the Austrian State Railways. Between 1887 and 1890 he devoted himself entirely to his work on the encyclopedia of railways by Victor von Röll .

In 1892 he was appointed director of the Styrian State Railway Authority. Here he was responsible for planning and building several local railways; the Murtalbahn is the most outstanding work of these . During this period attracted Wurmb the attention of the Styrian government Gundaker Graf Wurmbrand-Stuppach that him when he spoke of Franz Joseph I. for kk was appointed Minister of Commerce, in 1894 with the title and character of a Ministerialrat to the Inspector General for the Austrian local railways and the consultants of Ministry of Commerce in technical-commercial matters . In 1894, Wurmb also became an honorary citizen of Murau .

In 1901 he was promoted from Minister Heinrich von Wittek to head of section and railway construction director (a newly created office) in the 1896 newly founded kk railway ministry, which replaced the general directorate of the state railways ; in June of the same year the city of Salzburg also granted him honorary citizenship.

During this time, the focus of his work was the drafting of the law for the construction of the western Alpine transversal (see New Alpine Railways ). The law was passed in the Reichsrat on June 6, 1901. The project, also known as the "Austrian Alpine Railways", envisaged the following routes:

Construction work on the portal of the Bosruck Tunnel, 1904
Rosenbach: Opening of the Karawankenbahn on September 30, 1906

In addition to the long tunnels mentioned, a large number of other tunnels, viaducts and other bridge structures had to be built in alpine terrain, mostly under difficult geological conditions. A large number of unpredictable incidents resulted in high cost overruns. The drying up of springs and streams that were intended to supply water power on the one hand, but water ingress on tunnel construction sites on the other hand, and geological adversities such as rockfalls and landslides made construction work difficult in numerous places and made extensive structural measures necessary.

Wurmb's request to expand building loans in 1905 led to critical debates in parliament and personal attacks because parliamentary approval had not been obtained beforehand. He therefore quickly retired; the process also cost his superior, Minister of Railways Wittek, his post on May 1, 1905. Wurmb bitterly withdrew to Obertauern .

On the occasion of the opening of the Wocheiner Bahn and the Karstbahn from Assling to Trieste on July 19, 1906, the Vienna University of Technology awarded Wurmb an honorary doctorate. At the opening of the Karawankenbahn on September 30, 1906, Wurmb took part as a guest of honor.

Karl Wurmb died on January 30th, 1907 as a result of pneumonia. His work was completed with the opening of the Tauern Railway in July 1909.

Commemoration

Wurmb was on June 7, 1909 the Gersthofer cemetery buried in Vienna. Group S, grave No. 28. (In on cemetery Duration existing grave his daughter Anna Wurmb was buried 81-year 1,942th)

In several cities streets were named after Karl Wurmb, e.g. B. Wurmbstraße, which was newly laid out in 1910, south of the Vienna Meidling train station and Karl-Wurmb-Straße in the city of Salzburg , adjacent to the main train station. The Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects had a monument created by the sculptor Johann Rathausky erected in Salzburg .

Familiar

Wurmb's daughter Elisabeth was married to the tunnel construction pioneer Ladislaus von Rabcewicz .

literature

  • Josef Dultinger : Life and work of great personalities in Austrian railway history , Wort und Welt Verlag, Thaur / Tirol, 1993, ISBN 3-85373-164-3
  • Victor von Röll : Encyclopedia of the Railway System, Volume 10, pp. 450–451. Berlin, Vienna 1923 [1]
  • Th. Stampfl: Karl Wurmb, the builder of the Austrian Alpine Railways, on the occasion of his 100th birthday , magazine Eisenbahn 9/1950, magazine publisher Ployer & Co., Vienna
  • Steiermärkische Landesbahnen (editor): The book of the Murtalbahn . Self-published, 1994, ISBN 3-901474-02-1

Web links

Commons : Karl Wurmb  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A local railway office in the Ministry of Commerce . In: Journal of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects . (ZÖIAV). Volume 46.1894, issue 20, ZDB -ID 2534647-7 , p. 290 f. - Full text online (PDF; 12.8 MB) .
  2. ↑ RGBl. 1901/63. In:  Reichsgesetzblatt for the kingdoms and countries represented in the Reichsrath , year 1901, pp. 201–207. (Online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / rgb
  3. ↑ Little Chronicle. (...) Honorary doctorate. In:  Wiener Zeitung , November 14, 1906, p. 5, bottom center. (Online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrz
personal data
SURNAME Wurmb, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wurmb, Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian engineer, railway pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Neumarkt in the Hausruckkreis
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 1907
Place of death Vienna