Ludwig Bölkow

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ludwig Bölkow,
portrait by Günter Rittner 1978

Ludwig Bölkow (born June 30, 1912 in Schwerin ; † July 25, 2003 in Grünwald ) was a German engineer and entrepreneur . Bölkow was the founder of the aircraft manufacturer Bölkow GmbH , which became part of Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm in 1969 .

parents house

The father Ludwig Bölkow sen. (1886–1952) was foreman at Anton Fokker in Schwerin . He started his own business as an upholsterer, upholsterer and decorator in the early 1920s after the Fokker Flugzeugwerke was relocated from Schwerin-Görries to the Netherlands in 1919 .

1932-1945

After graduating from secondary school in Schwerin in the spring of 1932, Ludwig Bölkow (jr.) Studied mechanical engineering from autumn 1933 to early 1939 in Berlin at the TH Charlottenburg (now Technical University of Berlin ), specializing in aircraft construction. From March 1939 he worked in the aerodynamics department of the project office of Messerschmitt AG in Augsburg , where he was involved in the development of the Bf 109 G , the Me 210 and the world's first jet-powered fighter aircraft , the Messerschmitt Me 262 . As to his contribution to these developments, he later said:

“I then reworked the Me 109, there were 30,000 mistakes in the drawings, with a small team that I could inspire, and in 1943 we were as fast as the latest American developments, the Mustang , with the ancient Me 109. […] And some bold suggestions - we didn't have a computer back then - with which I could intuitively bridge this huge mess of arithmetic that lay before us, were very successful, and so in my first time there I had, that was one of my things where I am still proud to this day, contributed significantly to the fact that this famous Messerschmitt 262 got its shape: wing profiles, fuselage profiles, tail surfaces and the like. "

- Ludwig Bölkow

In 1943, he was in Wiener Neustadt the management of a development office of Wiener Neustadt Flugzeugwerke (WNF) is transmitted, that for the construction of 109 K Bf responsible. In January 1944 the project office moved to Oberammergau . Bölkow worked there until the end of the war.

After 1945

An Fs 24 Phoenix

In 1948 Bölkow founded his own engineering office in Stuttgart- Degerloch, where work studies for modern construction methods and developments for construction machinery and conveyor systems for building materials were carried out. In 1954 he began to turn back to aviation with his company Bölkow-Entwicklung KG . In 1958 the engineering office was relocated to Ottobrunn , and a year later a collaboration with Heinkel and Willy Messerschmitt began under the name “ Entwicklungsring Süd ”.

Between 1959 and 1965 Ludwig Bölkow laid the foundation stone for the current Airbus Helicopters plant in Donauwörth with the takeover of Waggon- und Maschinenbau GmbH Donauwörth (WMD) . The Bo 105 helicopter has been mass- produced there since the late 1960s . Bölkow developed a rotor head that is still used in the MBB / Kawasaki BK 117 almost unchanged today . With the Bo 105 " Christoph 1 ", Bölkow established air rescue for the first time in Germany , which is now the standard in almost all European countries.

Bölkow devoted himself to aviation and space travel, weapon systems and land-based means of transport. In March 1960, Bölkow founded a branch in Laupheim , from which today's Diehl Aviation Laupheim GmbH emerged. Some of the very light and manoeuvrable high-tech gliders and motorized aircraft (for example the Fs 24 Phönix ) were built from fiberglass composite materials. It was a novelty at the time and is exhibited in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

In 1965 Ludwig Bölkow founded Bölkow GmbH , which merged in 1968 with Messerschmitt AG and in 1969 with Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmbH to form Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm GmbH (MBB). He left the management of this company in 1977. MBB merged with Daimler Aerospace AG ( DASA ) in the early 1990s . This in turn became part of the aviation and defense group EADS .

From 1976 to 1982 Bölkow was President of the Federal Association of the German Aerospace Industry .

In 1983 he founded the Ludwig Bölkow Foundation in Ottobrunn in order to make technology more ecological.

“By looking at the time periods far ahead of us, standards for today's action should be found. In view of the inertia of the fundamental changes in technology and society, this is not an intellectual gimmick, but of existential importance for humanity. (...) The foundation should develop well-founded statements here and disseminate them independently of the details in a form that is understandable - even for non-experts - and thus make decisions for future generations enforceable today. "

- Ludwig Bölkow

At Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik GmbH , which is located here , plans were made for a magnetic levitation train , solar factories in the desert and for efficient storage of hydrogen as an energy source .

The Ludwig Bölkow Journalist Prize named after him has existed since 2004 .

Awards

Ludwig Bölkow was honored with the following awards:

Others

In 1999 Ludwig Bölkow donated 15 bronze sculptures and a wooden sculpture by the sculptor Ernst Barlach to the State Museum in his hometown Schwerin , which he had acquired for private use from the 1980s. These include “The Singing Man” (1928), “Russian Beggar II” (1907), “ Reading Convent Student ” (1930), “The Sensitive One” and “The Reunion ( Christ and Thomas )” (1926).

Ludwig Bölkow House of the Schwerin Chamber of Commerce

Appreciation

In 2004 the state vocational school in Donauwörth was renamed “Ludwig-Bölkow-Schule Staatliche Berufsschule Donauwörth”. Since 2007, the Ludwig-Bölkow-Preis, donated by his wife Eleonore Bölkow-Konschak, has been awarded annually at the Ludwig-Bölkow-Schule. This prize is awarded to vocational students who - in addition to good grades in the vocational school - are also involved outside of work.

In Taufkirchen near Munich there is a Ludwig-Bölkow-Allee and the Ludwig Bölkow Campus . There is a Ludwig-Bölkow-Straße in his native Schwerin, in Durlangen , in Laupheim , in Sauerlach and at the Airbus Helicopters Center in Donauwörth. The Schwerin Chamber of Commerce and Industry building is also named after Ludwig Bölkow.

A copy of the revolutionary Bo 105 helicopter is in Donauwörth at the roundabout to the commercial area at Airbus Helicopters.

literature

  • Ludwig Bölkow: Committed to the future. Memories . 2nd revised and expanded new edition, Herbig, Munich / Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-7766-2145-1 .
  • Kyrill von Gersdorff: Ludwig Bölkow and his work. Ottobrunn innovations . 2nd, extended edition, Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 2002, ISBN 3-7637-6124-1 .
  • Ludwig Bölkow Foundation (Ed.): From vision to reality. Festschrift on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Ludwig Bölkow . Ludwig-Bölkow-Stiftung, Ottobrunn 2012, without ISBN ( table of contents, PDF )

watch TV

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mathias Schulenburg: From jet planes to solar panels. In: Calendar sheet (broadcast on DLF ). June 30, 2012, accessed June 30, 2012 .
  2. ↑ Frank-E. Rietz: Ludwig Bölkow was born 100 years ago - a life dedicated to technology . In: Aviation Classics . No. 5, 2012, pp. 66/67.
  3. ^ Ludwig Bölkow - German designer and entrepreneur . In: Official Gazette for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern No. 18/2017 of May 8, 2017, p. 357, Ministry of Justice Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schwerin 2017
  4. ↑ Bölkow: Committed to the future . (2000), p. 403 f.
  5. ^ Barlach sculptures for the Schwerin Museum and "The great dynamism in simple lines inspired me" . In: Schweriner Volkszeitung , 16./17. October 1999.
personal data
SURNAME Bölkow, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH June 30, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwerin
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 2003
Place of death Grünwald near Munich