Ludwig Kraus (engineer)
Ludwig Kraus (born December 26, 1911 in Hettenshausen ; † September 19, 1997 in Munich ) had a doctorate in mechanical engineering. From 1963 he was Technical Director of Auto Union GmbH in Ingolstadt . After its merger with NSU Motorenwerke to form Audi NSU Auto Union AG in September 1969, he was Chief Technology Officer until the end of 1973 .
Career
Worked at Daimler-Benz
From 1939 Kraus worked at Daimler-Benz AG . In 1951 he took over the management of the construction department for racing car construction, where he had the Mercedes Silver Arrows W 154 and W 196 developed. As chief engineers and head of advance development, his best-known employees during this time were: Rudolf Uhlenhaut , Hans Scherenberg and Fritz Nallinger .
Worked at Auto Union
On October 8, 1963, he took over the position of deputy managing director and technical director of the then Daimler-Benz subsidiary Auto Union. His main task was to dissuade the convinced two-stroke advocate and Auto Union managing director Werner Henze from using the secretly planned 1.3-liter V6 two-stroke from the pen of the well-known designer Hans Müller and finally to introduce a four-stroke engine . Therefore transplanted Kraus as one of its first activities the so-called medium-pressure engine in the DKW F102 and was at the behest of Daimler-Benz, the brand Audi with the Audi F103 resurrect. The engine was originally developed at Daimler-Benz as a multi-fuel engine with the internal code "Mexico" for military purposes.
No sooner was production going really well at Audi than the Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagenwerk AG, Heinrich Nordhoff , issued an order to limit development work in Ingolstadt to measures accompanying series production. New cars should only be designed in Wolfsburg. Therefore, 150 employees in the development department in Ingolstadt should be laid off. Nevertheless, Kraus secretly developed a new model, the Audi 100 , which ultimately led to the retention of the Audi brand. Kraus' experience in developing the Silver Arrows in the 1950s flowed directly into the new development: As a designer in the racing department of Daimler-Benz, he had developed a computer-aided calculation, which is now used for the first time in series vehicle production when calculating the body structure of the new Audi 100 was used.
Influence on the Volkswagen group
Kraus made contact with star designer Giorgio Giugiaro , who worked for Audi in the early 1970s and later drew the Golf for Volkswagen .
At the beginning of the 1970s, Volkswagen ran into considerable economic difficulties that were averted at the last minute with a transfer of technology from Audi: VW switched its vehicle range from air -cooled to water-cooled models. Without the committed work of Kraus, the bankruptcy of VW would have been inevitable.
Award
In 1974 the TU Hannover awarded Kraus an honorary doctorate .
Others
- At the beginning of the 1970s, Audi’s head office was also jokingly referred to as “Ludwigsburg”.
- Kraus' successor at Audi was Ferdinand Piëch .
Web links
- Portrait on audi.com
- Tradition: When Ludwig Kraus saved Audi on welt.de, published on July 9, 2013, accessed on May 2, 2018
- Portrait on audi-100-coupe-s.de, accessed on October 2, 2017
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kraus, Ludwig |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German manager, Chief Technology Officer at Audi NSU Auto Union AG (1963–1973) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 26, 1911 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hettenshausen |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 19, 1997 |
| Place of death | Munich |