Kurt Magnus (engineer)

Kurt Magnus (born September 8, 1912 in Magdeburg ; † December 12, 2003 in Munich ) was a German scientist in the field of technical mechanics , a pioneer in mechatronics and a pioneer of modern navigation technology and inertial sensors .

Life

Kurt Magnus began studying mathematics and physics at the Georg-August University in Göttingen in 1932 . In November 1933 he became a member of the SA . In the Hitler Youth , his last rank was the main follower leader, cf. the officer rank of captain . Magnus received his doctorate in 1937 under Max Schuler in Göttingen with Ludwig Prandtl's participation in the field of "Force-coupled gyroscopes", followed by his habilitation in 1942 in the subject of mechanics on the subject of "General movements of rigid bodies in moving reference systems". The following year Magnus became a lecturer in Göttingen and Danzig . Before the end of the war, he was given leave of absence from his scientific work and was employed for engineering work in industry and test sites in the Air Force .

After the German surrender , from October 22, 1946, as part of the Ossawakim campaign, there was a seven-year forced residency in the former USSR on the island of Gorodomlja (now the Solnetschny settlement ) in Lake Seliger , about 380 km northwest of Moscow. He worked as a specialist for gyro systems in a German team of 160 employees under the direction of Helmut Gröttrup . From 1950 he worked with gyro systems in order to achieve higher levels of accuracy with the help of the Schuler principle .

After his return in 1953, he first continued his scientific career in Freiburg im Breisgau , before taking on a chair at what is now the University of Stuttgart in 1958 . In 1966 the Technical University of Munich appointed him to a newly established chair.

Services

Kurt Magnus' scientific subject was technical, analytical and higher mechanics. During his scientific career he has repeatedly worked in the field of gyro theory and gyroscopic devices , as well as vibration theory and control theory . The professional world owes him almost 80 publications, including six specialist books, all of which are characterized by showing a connection between theory and practice, between fundamentals and application.

In July 2018, the Technical University of Munich honored him with a plaque as a pioneer of mechatronics for his life's work:

“Kurt Magnus was not only an excellent scientist, but also a brilliant teacher with remarkable pedagogical skills. His visionary scientific findings have an effect up to the present day and beyond. As a pioneer in mechatronics, Kurt Magnus contributed important findings to the development of microelectromechanical systems that can be found today in pacemakers, cars, production machines and satellites. "

- Wolfgang A. Herrmann (2018) :

honors and awards

• Dr.-Ing. E. h. in Stuttgart
• Ludwig-Prandtl-Ring of the German Aerospace Society (DGLR)
• Wilhelm Exner Medal
• Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art (1986)
• Grashof commemorative coin of the Association of German Engineers (1989)
• Memorial plaque as a pioneer of mechatronics at the Technical University of Munich (2018)

Works

• Forced oscillations of the linear oscillator with non-harmonic excitation. Journal for Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Dresden 1951
• Contributions to the dynamics of the force-free, gimbal-mounted top. Journal for Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Weinheim 1955.
• Gyroscopic properties of the revolving chain ring. Journal for Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Weinheim 1956.
• Vibrations. An introduction to the theoretical treatment of vibration problems. 1st edition Teubner, Stuttgart 1961.
• The circle. An introduction to the theory of the gyroscope, with instructions for carrying out experiments. 3. rework. Edition Industrie-Druck Verlag, Göttingen 1965.
• Spinning top. Theory and applications. 1st edition Springer, Berlin 1971, ISBN 3-540-05198-8 .
• Gyrodynamics. Course held at the Department of General Mechanics Oct. 1970. Springer, Vienna 1974, ISBN 3-211-81229-6 .
• Basics of technical mechanics. Teubner, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-519-02324-5 .
• Missile slaves. German researchers behind red barbed wire. Elbe-Dnjepr-Verlag, Klitzschen 1999, ISBN 3-933395-67-4 .
  • ロ ケ ッ ト 開 発 収容所 Japanese version with Shigeru Tsumori, Saimaru Shuppankai publishing house, Tokyo 1996, ISBN 4-377-31074-7 .

Web links

• Commemorative document on the work and the merits of Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dr.-Ing. Eh Kurt Magnus. (PDF; 1.8 MB) Werner-von-Siemens-Ring Foundation, July 20, 2018, accessed on February 9, 2020 (on the occasion of the handover and inauguration of a memorial plaque at the Technical University of Munich). 
• Literature by and about Kurt Magnus in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry about Kurt Magnus in the database of the Wilhelm Exner Medal Foundation .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gerhard Rammer, “The Nazification and Denazification of Physics at the University of Göttingen”, dissertation, University of Göttingen, 2004.
2. ^ Anatoly Zak: News and history of astronautics in the former USSR - German team on Moscow. Retrieved December 1, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Kurt Magnus: The acceleration-insensitive coordination of navigation devices. Retrieved July 4, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Kurt Magnus: The acceleration dependency of the vertical display of gravity pendulum and plumb top. In: Engineer Archive. 1966, accessed July 4, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Memorial plaque for Prof. Kurt Magnus unveiled. Mechatronics pioneer honored for his life's work. In: Technical University of Munich . July 20, 2018, accessed January 23, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Kurt Magnus: Forced oscillations of the linear oscillator with non-harmonic excitation. (PDF; 390 kB) In: ZAMM, Dresden. October 1951, pp. 324–329 , accessed on June 12, 2020 (published by Gorodomlia with the location Ostaschkow, USSR).