Otto Kommerell

Otto Kommerell (around 1935)

Otto Kommerell (born June 24, 1873 in Tübingen ; † July 12, 1967 in Stuttgart ) was a German civil engineer and railway construction officer who worked - first in Friedrichshafen and Alsace , then for a long time in Berlin . He also emerged as a genealogist who dealt with the Kommerell family and some related families.

Life

Otto Kommerell was the fourth and penultimate child of the founder of the popular Tübingen Café Kommerell, Adolf Kommerell (1841–1890), and his wife Minna geb. White (1846-1931). His older brother was the deserving mathematician Karl Kommerell .

Martha Kommerell b. Kirn (around 1930)

After attending the Realschule Tübingen , Otto Kommerell studied civil engineering at the Technical University of Stuttgart from 1891 to 1895 . He then went on a four-month study trip to London , Liverpool , Manchester and Paris . From 1896 to the end of 1899 he worked as a government building supervisor ( trainee lawyer ) in the construction of the Friedrichshafen – Lindau railway line in Friedrichshafen . In 1900, after passing the second state examination, he was appointed government builder ( assessor ) and transferred to the Reichseisenbahnen in Alsace-Lorraine to Strasbourg . It was precisely during this time that he married Martha Kirn (born October 16, 1872) in Friedrichshafen on July 7, 1872, a daughter of Fritz von Kirn, the then port director of Friedrichshafen, and his wife Julie, nee. Fog. Martha's parents, who both came from southwest Germany ( Rottenburg am Neckar and Karlsruhe ), lived for a while in Kiel , where Martha was born, but then they moved to Friedrichshafen and lived there until death. Exactly nine months after the wedding, on April 12, 1901, Otto's only son Burkhard was born.

In 1903 Kommerell was promoted to railway construction and operations inspector , and from 1903–1906 he headed the Busendorf construction department , which was responsible for the construction of the Metz – Vigy – Anzelingen railway line . From 1906 to 1908 he was head of the works office in Strasbourg. In 1908 he was transferred to Berlin to the Reich Office for the Administration of the Reich Railways in Alsace-Lorraine and Luxembourg , where he was initially an unskilled worker . In 1911 he was appointed imperial building officer. In 1912 he presented in Berlin his doctoral thesis on the statistical accounting of tunnel walls in front and the caption "Dr.-Ing." Was his doctorate . On July 1, 1917, he became a railroad advisor at the Military Directorate-General in Brussels . After the armistice of Compiègne he became a consultant for the field railways at the Reichsbahnabwicklungsamt.

From June 1, 1920 he worked at the Reichsbahn Central Office in Berlin. In 1921 he was promoted to senior government building officer. In 1924 he became a member of the Technical Higher Examination Office. In 1925 he was appointed Reich Railway Director and from March 1, 1925 he was head of the structural engineering department at the Reichsbahn Central Office. In 1930 he was appointed department president. In 1936 he became a full member of the Prussian Academy of Building . In September 1939 he became head of the special department of the Reichsbahnbaudirektion Berlin , which was responsible for special contracts in the construction of railway bridges. Despite the advanced age of 70, he still held this office in 1943.

In addition to his professional career, Otto Kommerell has been active as a genealogist since 1915 and initially researched the relationships between the Kommerell family from the beginning, i. H. from the 15th century. Later he dealt with a few other families related to the Kommerells. His genealogical work is characterized by extraordinary accuracy with regard to the life data of both the main family, as well as the married couple and their children. On the other hand, Kommerell did not try to submit biographies of the listed persons. He was generally content to list the functions or offices of these people without paying attention to chronology or importance. In the case of some of the more famous people from the not-so-distant past, he copied previous publications, especially short newspaper articles. This was also true in the case of his brother Karl Kommerell. Instead, he provided numerous tables in which he statistically analyzed births in the respective generation, age, diseases, occupations and twin births.

After retiring, he moved to Stuttgart, as it was a more convenient location than Berlin for his genealogical research.

Publications

To railway construction technology

• Basics for the static calculation of tunnel masonry , Berlin: W. Ernst & Sohn 1912.
  • 2nd extended edition as: Static calculation of tunnel masonry. Basics and application to the most important load cases , Berlin: Ernst & Sohn 1940.
• One year of high-quality structural steel St. 48 , Berlin: Julius Springer 1925.
• with Bruno Schulz: Influence of centrifugal forces on railway bridges. Recommended in the regulations for iron structures valid at the Reichsbahn companies, calculation bases for iron railway bridges of February 25, 1925 , Berlin: W. Ernst & Sohn 1925.
• with W. Rein: Tighter competition for designs for a fixed road bridge over the Rhine in Cologne-Mülheim , Berlin: Julius Springer 1927.
• Explanations of the preliminary regulations of the Deutsche Reichsbahn for the delimitation of the clear space for standard-gauge railways (also valid for sidings) , Berlin: W. Ernst & Sohn 1928.
• Calculation, structural design and execution of welded railway bridges , Berlin: W. Ernst & Sohn 1930 (first published in: “Bautechnik” 1930).
• Explanations of the regulations for welded steel structures with examples for the calculation and structural design , 3rd, revised and expanded edition, Berlin: Ernst & Sohn 1931.
• Explanations of the regulations for welded steel structures with examples for the calculation and structural design , Berlin: Ernst & Sohn:
  • Vol. 1: 4th revised and expanded edition, 1934.
  • Vol. 2: 4th revised and expanded edition, 1936.
  • Vol. 3: 5th revised and expanded edition, 1940.
  • Vol. 3: 5th revised and expanded edition, 1942.

To genealogy

• The pedigree , [Berlin SW 11, Hallesches Ufer 35/36]: [Dr. O. Kommerell] 1932.
• Family chronicle Kommerell. Family tree with 79 pictures and 15 tables, drawn up between 1915–1942 , Frankfurt a. M.: Kramer 1943.
• Addendum to the family table Kommerell , Frankfurt a. M.: Kramer 1952.
• Graphic pedigree Kommerell - Grüneisen , Stuttgart: Association for family and heraldry in Württemberg and Baden 1954–1964:
  • Issue 1: Kommerell , 1954
  • Issue 2: Kommerell , 1954
  • Main volume, 1955
  • New series, with additions to the Kommerell family tree. With around 260 pictures of people, 1959
  • Book 3: Kommerell. Grüneisen , 1964
  • Volume 4: Kirn , 1964
  • Volume 5: Kirn, Martens , 1964
  • Directory of names , 1964

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Otto Kommerell: Familienchronik Kommerell ... , p. 181
2. ↑ Otto Kommerell: Family Chronicle Kommerell ... , p. 161

literature

• Otto Kommerell: Family Chronicle Kommerell. Family tree with 79 pictures and 15 tables, drawn up between 1915–1942 , Frankfurt a. M.: Kramer 1943