Otto Graf (civil engineer)

Otto Maximilian Graf (born April 15, 1881 in Schömberg near Freudenstadt , † April 29, 1956 in Stuttgart ) was a German civil engineer and materials scientist . He headed the construction department of the Materials Testing Institute University of Stuttgart (MPA), which was later named after him (Otto Graf Institute).

Life

Graf studied at the higher mechanical engineering school in Stuttgart and then worked as an engineer at the Augsburg-Nuremberg machine factory ( MAN ). From 1903 he was at the MPA founded by Carl von Bach in Stuttgart, where he devoted himself to the then new building material iron and reinforced concrete . There he worked closely with Emil Mörsch (at that time head of the design office of Wayss & Freytag ), and even before the First World War he established a reputation as a leading material researcher in reinforced concrete. To this end, he developed test equipment and measurement methods. During the First World War he coordinated research for the engineer and engineer corps of the German army. From 1919 he was back at the MPA Stuttgart and continued the collaboration with Mörsch (now professor for solid construction in Stuttgart) and also worked with the professor for steel, wood and industrial construction Hermann Maier-Leibnitz . In the Great Depression, the orders from the industry decreased and he concentrated on teaching, whereby he also developed and taught test methods that were applicable on the construction site. In 1930 he became an associate professor and later a full professor for building engineering and material testing at the TH Stuttgart . After the MPA was split up, he headed the Construction Department (FMPA) from 1931. In the 1930s, the collaboration with the Reichsautobahn from 1934 onwards led to many new orders and research projects from the institute, which also led to the first collaboration with Fritz Leonhardt , who later had many tests on reinforced concrete construction carried out at the institute. During the Second World War , the institute took on important military tasks, including in timber construction. In 1952 the institute for building research and material testing in civil engineering (so the name from 1936) was renamed the Otto-Graf-Institut. In 1950 he retired.

He is one of the founders of the Stuttgart School of Structural Engineering and made the research results of his institute on reinforced concrete widely known through publication in the booklets of the German Committee for Reinforced Concrete.

Honors

• In 1941 he received the Emil Mörsch Memorial Medal .
• In 1981 the Federal Association of the German Cement Industry established the Otto Graf Foundation , which has been awarding the Otto Graf Prize every two years since 1982 to specialists who have made outstanding contributions to concrete transport routes. Since 1987, the foundation has also awarded the Transport Construction Prize for young academics in this field every two years .

literature

• Christiane Weber and Volker Ziegler: Otto Graf (1881–1956) and the building material test at the Technical University of Stuttgart. In: Beton- und Stahlbetonbau , 106th volume (2011), pp. 594–603.
• Henryk Ditchen: Otto Graf. The building materials researcher. (= Stuttgart contributions to the history of science and technology , Volume 2) 2013. (Review by Karl-Eugen Kurrer in: Stahlbau, 83rd year (2014), no. 10, p. 765).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biography in Christiane Weber, Fritz Leonhardt, Lightweight Construction - A Demand of Our Time, KIT Karlsruhe 2011
2. ^ Christian Lippold (ed.): Der Elsner. Road and Transportation Handbook . Otto Elsner Verlagsgesellschaft, 2018, ISBN 978-3-87199-222-3 , page A / 54.