Rudolf Christiani (engineer)

Rudolf Christiani (born February 8, 1877 in Sakskøbing , † December 20, 1960 in Frederiksberg ) was a Danish civil engineer and entrepreneur, founder of Christiani and Nielsen (1904).

Christiani was the son of pastor Fritz Holger Christiani and Cecilie von Pontoppidan. He studied at the Polytechnic in Copenhagen and then worked for the construction company B&W (Burmeister and Wain), where he also supervised a large project in Germany. In 1902/03 he was in France to study at the École des ponts et chaussées and with the reinforced concrete pioneer and building contractor Francois Hennebique . In 1903 he worked for Carl Brandt in Düsseldorf, Hennebique's representative in Germany. In 1904 he was back in Copenhagen, where he founded the engineering office Christiani and Nielsen with the Prime Lieutenant of the Navy Aage Nielsen (1873-1945). Nielsen wasn't a trained civil engineer, but had entrepreneurial skills (his father was a director at B&W). In 1908 he set up the Hamburg branch himself and quickly became known for the first reinforced concrete quay walls (in Hamburg and Stettin), reinforced concrete piles and reinforced concrete sheet piling. After a few years the existence of the branch was assured and he returned to Copenhagen (1913) and set up further branches abroad, for example in Brazil in 1917. Even after that he was abroad a lot. In the 1930s, the company was one of those who played a key role in German motorway construction.

He worked with the Germans in France and Norway during World War II, which is why he was criticized by the Danish and Norwegian resistance. In order to save the shops, Christiani developed the Scandinavia Plan in 1943 , for which he received conditional encouragement from Werner Best . Sweden should occupy Norway and Denmark instead of the Germans. The plan was discovered in early 1944 through reports in the Swedish press and led to the company being blacklisted by the USA in 1944, with immediate effects on overseas activities, especially in Brazil. After the war, the Allies demanded that he give up the management of the company and that the company be converted into a stock corporation (which took place in 1958). In 1946 his son Aage took over the management of the engineering office. Accusations against Christiani for collaboration were prepared in both Norway and Denmark, but all of them were closed (in Denmark in 1947 by order of the minister). However, he was on the board of several foreign subsidiaries of Christiani and Nielsen. After Christiani and Nielsen were converted into a stock corporation in 1958, he became chairman of the supervisory board.

From 1917 to 1920 he was on the municipal council of Frederiksborg. He was also a member of the Liberal Conservatives ( Venstre ) in the Reich and Landtag. In the 1920s he ran for elections in vain (in Svendborg County ), from 1932 to 1935 (for Ebeltoft County , not re-elected in 1935) and from 1939 to 1943 he was in Parliament ( Folketing ). From 1934 to 1939 he was a delegate of his party to the League of Nations and in 1942/43 he was a member of the Folketing's Foreign Policy Committee. From 1947 to 1953 he was in the state parliament (Landstinget). He wrote various books on economics and politics in the 1930s and 1940s, such as the global economic crisis and Denmark in 1932.

He was in command of the Danebrog Order. Christiani sat on various supervisory boards (Titan, Atlas, Danish sugar factories). In 1939 he became an honorary member of the Hafenbautechnische Gesellschaft, which he had co-founded in 1914, and he was an honorary member of Hamburg's Architects and Engineers Association (1952). Christiani was on the board of a number of non-profit and cultural associations, such as 1931/32 in the Alliance francaise, 1928-1951 in the National Association for Tuberculosis Control and 1916-1950 in the Vejlefjord Sanatorium.

In 1927 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the TU Braunschweig and in 1952 its honorary senator. In 1910 he was a member of the jury for the World Exhibition in Brussels . In 1942 he received the Coiseau Gold Medal from the French Engineers Association.

In 1909 he married Henriette Oldenburg. Christiani is buried in the Jaegerspris in the royal forest of Frederiksborg.

literature

• Obituary in the yearbook of the Hafenbautechnischen Gesellschaft, Volume 25/26, 1958/1961, Springer Verlag 1962, p. VIII (with photo)
• Entry in the store Dansk
• Steen Andersen: Escape from 'Safehaven': The case of Christiani & Nielsen's blacklisting in 1944, Business History, Volume 51, 2009, pp. 691-711