Leo Winkel

Leo Winkel (born September 15, 1885 in Cologne , † March 12, 1981 in Duisburg ) was a German designer .

Act

After studying architecture , he first worked as a master builder (today's job title architect / civil engineer) at the German Emperor's trade union , a mine in Hamborn, and from 1916 at Thyssen AG in Hamborn, until he founded his own company. Up until the founding, Winkel built factories and company apartments for Thyssen . But he was known for his air defense towers. Because his work was important to the war effort, he was not called up for military service.

He designed the Winkel air defense towers named after him, which are high- rise bunkers . These pointed bunkers are also popularly called concrete cigars or sugar loafs, in English ant hill bunker (anthill bunker). On September 18, 1934, the design idea was submitted as a patent application to the Reich Patent Office and granted as a patent on April 9, 1938.

The company registration Winkel & Co. Duisburg for the construction of air defense towers dates from December 31, 1936. The initial capital was RM 15,000. The angled towers, which, depending on their design, could hold up to 600 people, were developed and, after licensing, erected by twelve leading large construction companies in Germany. Around 200 angled towers were built. Today, as far as they are preserved, most of them are under monument protection.

After the Second World War he continued to work as an architect. He was buried in Dinslaken .

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  Air protection tower in Knapsack at the Goldenberg power plant

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  Air defense tower in Giessen

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  in Falkensee

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  Details on the air defense tower in Fuhsestrasse in Hanover

See also

• List of bunkers of the Winkel type

literature

• Michael Foedrowitz : The Winkel air defense towers in Germany from 1936 to the present day. Podzun-Pallas, Wölfersheim-Berstadt 1998, ISBN 3-7909-0632-8 (= Waffen-Arsenal . Issue 175.).
• Michael Foedrowitz: Air defense towers and their types 1934–1945. Nebel-Verlag, Utting 2003, ISBN 3-89555-096-5 .

Web links

Commons : Leo Winkel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The history of the angle towers and their designs
• Air protection towers, detailed treatise at geschichtsspuren.de (formerly lostplaces.de)
• Angular towers at IGEL - interest group for research into air raid shelters
• List of angle towers
• Angular tower branch of the Cologne Fortress Museum
• Picture gallery of eight angled towers in Giessen
• Cologne Fortress Museum - Winkelturm branch

Individual evidence

1. ↑ patent DE658344 : air defense building. Registered on September 18, 1934, published on April 9, 1938, applicant: L. Winkel & Co. Luftschaffeme in Duisburg, inventor: Leo Winkel.