Max Friz

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Max Friz (born October 1, 1883 in Urach , † June 9, 1966 in Tegernsee ) was a German engineer and outstanding engine designer . In particular, his work at BMW made him known.

After finishing school, Friz was supposed to become a businessman and later take over the parental business. But his tendency towards technology was stronger. After four years of apprenticeship in the company Dampfmaschinenbau Kuhn in Cannstatt , he attended the former royal building trade school in Esslingen am Neckar from 1902 to 1904 . From 1906 he worked as a designer at Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim , where his first major achievement was the Grand Prix automobile engine, with which Christian Friedrich Lautenschlager won the French Grand Prix in 1914. From 1912 on, he also designed a usable four-stroke in-line aircraft engine with an overhead camshaft .

On January 2, 1917, he moved to Rapp Motorenwerke GmbH in Munich , whose boss Karl Rapp had initially rejected him. Seven months later the company became Bayrische Motoren-Werke GmbH ( BMW ) , since 1918 a stock corporation. Friz soon became internationally known for the development of the BMW III and BMW IV aircraft engines . But it was above all the high-altitude engine BMW IIIa with the altitude carburetor developed by him that made the Fokker D VII fighter plane far superior to its opponents towards the end of the war. On August 10, 1918, Friz received power of attorney .

After the end of the war, the BMW IIIa engine made a major contribution to the success of the Junkers F 13 aircraft . Because of the impact of the Versailles Treaty on the German aviation industry, Friz and his company turned to road vehicles. In 1922, the investor Camillo Castiglioni transferred the engine construction department of BMW together with the company name to the former Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG (BFW) , whose plants were also located in Munich-Oberwiesenfeld, and which converted their production to engines for a wide variety of civilian purposes. In 1923, Friz set a milestone in vehicle technology with the development of the BMW R 32 motorcycle , with a basic concept that is still used today at BMW. Many sporting successes and world records were achieved with it.

All of these achievements created the prerequisites for a position as director (board member) at Bayerische Motoren-Werke AG . On April 25, 1925, he was appointed technical director and at the same time chief designer of the company, a position he held until September 13, 1937. Among other things, he was responsible for the development of the BMW VI aircraft engine, which is extremely important for German aviation . Airplanes equipped with this engine were used by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen for his pole flights and the Swiss Walter Mittelholzer for his flight to Cape Town. Many planes of the secretly emerging air force were powered by BMW VI. Friz was also significantly involved in the license negotiations with the American company Pratt & Whitney because of the replica of the engines "Wasp" and "Hornet" , which brought the further engine development of BMW in a completely different direction to the air-cooled radial engines . From December 21, 1934 to November 15, 1937 he was managing director of the BMW subsidiary BMW Flugmotorenbau GmbH . In 1938 Friz took over the management of the new BMW subsidiary Flugmotorenfabrik Eisenach GmbH . In the same year he became a full member of the German Academy for Aviation Research in Berlin. In 1945 Friz retired and moved to his house on the Tegernsee. In 1954 the Technical University of Munich awarded him an honorary doctorate (Dr.-Ing.Eh) in recognition of his services . In 1966 he died in Tegernsee.

literature

  • Siegfried Rauch; Frank Rönicke: Men and motorcycles - a century of German motorcycle development. Stuttgart: Motorbuch-Verlag 2008, ISBN 978-3-613-02947-7 , p. 256, short portrait

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Friz, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer and engine designer
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Urach , Württemberg
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1966
Place of death Tegernsee