Otto Berndt

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Otto Berndt (* 29. January 1857 in Neuruppin ; † 9. February 1940 in Darmstadt ; Complete name: Karl Ernst August Otto Berndt ) was a German mechanical engineering - engineering and university teachers , who in 1892 as a professor of Machine Engineering and Technology at the Technical University Darmstadt taught and is considered the founder of the state material testing institute (MPA). He had a great influence on the development of the institutes for the new mechanical engineering course in Darmstadt, which was one of the oldest polytechnic universities in Europe.

Life

Otto Berndt was born as the son of the leather merchant and engineer Ernst Berndt and his wife Wilhelmine Berndt, nee. Kufahl born in Neuruppin in 1857. From 1877 to 1881 he studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University (Berlin-) Charlottenburg . In 1881 he passed the first state examination and was appointed government building supervisor ( trainee lawyer in the public building administration), the second state examination followed in 1884. From 1885 to 1887 he was employed as a government builder ( assessor in the public building administration) at the main railway workshop in Halberstadt . From 1887 to 1892 he worked in the mechanical engineering office of the Royal Railway Directorate in Magdeburg .

To May 1, 1892 Berndt was as successor to Ernst Adolf Brauer , the second full professor for general Mechanical Engineering and Mechanical Technology at the Technical University of Darmstadt appointed . His concern was to conduct research across the board in addition to teaching. He expanded the fields of machine tools and power machines, steam boilers and machine elements that had been established before his appointment to include a chair for water power machines and later a chair for paper production. At the turn of the century, mechanical engineering comprised five chairs. Supported by the Association of German Engineers , a large mechanical engineering laboratory was also set up - roughly at the same time as the Technical Test and Research Institute (TVFA) of the Vienna University of Technology.

In addition, Berndt founded the state materials testing institute (MPA) and a chair for airship and aviation technology in 1907 . The university owes his efforts to further chairs for materials science , thermal engines and railways, which were established in 1927 at the end of his term of office. He was also a strong advocate of increasing the proportion of foreign students, which subsequently rose to as much as 30%.

Berndt was an early master of fundraising . On his initiative, the association of friends of the Technical University of Darmstadt , the so-called Ernst-Ludwigs-Hochschulgesellschaft, was founded in 1918 . In the 1920s in particular, this association was able to raise considerable funds for the university, which made it possible to finance several new buildings. When in the mid-1920s the lack of a sports hall and a larger meeting room became noticeable in the university , but there was a lack of money, he declared: "I will build a gymnasium and festival hall for the university." After a short time he had found enough sponsors and At the beginning of 1926 the new hall was inaugurated on the university area. In memory of Berndt, it was named Otto-Berndt-Halle after him.

In 1929, as construction manager, he played a key role in the construction of the ski leisure center of the Technical University of Darmstadt in Hirschegg in Kleinwalsertal . A sunbathing hall was built next to the house from his funds, which was demolished in 1958.

Berndt held the office of rector of the university in the academic years 1896/97 and 1897/98 and again in 1915/16. He was also dean of the mechanical engineering department from 1905 to 1912 . His tenure as dean was the longest in the history of the deans of this department.

Berndt had been with Margarethe born on June 22, 1885. Klövekorn from Frankfurt an der Oder married. The children Erich (1886–1965), Waldemar (1891–1915) and Gertrud (* 1893) came from the marriage. Otto Berndt is buried in the old cemetery in Darmstadt.

Honors

A street on the Lichtwiese campus of the Technical University of Darmstadt has been named after him since October 15, 2013 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hochschulzeitung ³ , 2nd year 2006, edition 5 (from October 9, 2006), p. 3 (mention of Otto Berndt as a proponent of the "foreign studies").
personal data
SURNAME Berndt, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berndt, Karl Ernst August Otto (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mechanical engineer and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuruppin
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1940
Place of death Darmstadt