Otto Steinhardt

Otto Steinhardt (born February 25, 1909 in Oberhausen ; † July 18, 2000 in Karlsruhe ) was a German civil engineer and professor of steel construction at the University of Karlsruhe .

Life

Otto Steinhardt grew up in Oberhausen in the Rhineland, where he attended secondary school. After graduating from high school and a subsequent internship as a locksmith and blacksmith, he studied civil engineering at the TH Darmstadt . After graduating, he worked for a short time as a research assistant for Heinrich Kayser at the chair for steel and solid construction there. After a short break from working in industry, he returned to the chair and received his doctorate there as a Dr.-Ing. His most important role models were Heinrich Kayser, Friedrich Engesser , Fritz Stüssi and Stepan Tymoshenko (Steven Timoshenko). After twelve years of activity in the Szczecin steel construction company Gollnow und Sohn, he worked with such important engineers as Feige, Beer and Argyris. After the end of the war, the Gollnow company was relocated to Karlsruhe, where Steinhardt began his teaching position at the Faculty of Construction at the Technical University of Karlsruhe. In 1949 he was appointed full professor for bridge construction and structural engineering as the successor to Ernst Gaber at the chair of the TH Karlsruhe, known from Friedrich Engesser . The mutual influence of basic research, teaching and practice characterize his work and publications. In 1965 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the ETH Zurich and in 1994 by the TU Bucharest . His successor was Rolf Baehre in 1978 . An important companion was Friedrich Mang , who, as a professor at the Research Institute for Steel, Wood and Stone, focused on container construction, large pipe construction and materials and welding technology.

Steinhardt attached great importance to maintaining the tradition of the Karlsruhe School of structural engineering and preserving the memory of its founder Friedrich Engesser.

He was an appraiser for the collapse of the south bridge (Koblenz) in 1971.

literature

• Obituary, in: Stahlbau , Volume 69, 2000, Issue 9, pp. 733–734