Ulrich Finsterwalder

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Ulrich Finsterwalder (born December 25, 1897 in Munich ; † December 5, 1988 there ) was a German civil engineer .

Life

Ulrich Finsterwalder, son of geodesist and professor of mathematics Sebastian Finsterwalder and brother of architect Eberhard Finsterwalder and geodesist Richard Finsterwalder , graduated from high school in 1916. Participation in the First World War followed . From 1918 to 1920 he was a French prisoner of war and then studied civil engineering at the Technical University of Munich until 1923 . After graduating in 1923, he began his career as a structural engineer and designer at Dyckerhoff & Widmann .

Market hall Basel

Together with Franz Dischinger , Finsterwalder initially dealt primarily with thin dome shells and barrel roofs, which were used, among other things, at the Zeiss works in Jena and the large market hall in Basel (60 m span). In 1930 he did his doctorate under Ludwig Föppl with a topic on the deformation calculation of circular segment shells. After Dischinger was appointed to the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg, Finsterwalder succeeded him in 1933 as head of the design office of Dyckerhoff & Widmann, from 1941 he was part of the management and from 1949 was personally liable partner of the Berlin-based company from 1933 to 1944/45 Company.

The Bendorfer Bridge over the Rhine near Koblenz

During the Second World War , Finsterwalder was released from military service at the request of his employer. He was significantly involved in the manufacture of boat hulls made of lightweight concrete in shell construction. In 1944 he was awarded the Silver Needle of the Dr. Fritz Todt Prize by the Berlin Gauleitung for the development of concrete shipbuilding.

After the Second World War and the company's move to Munich, he further developed prestressed concrete construction using the Dywidag post-tensioning system, among other things. The cantilever shell roof made of prestressed concrete of the Black Forest Hall in Karlsruhe, designed by him in 1953, caused a sensation , with an area of ​​46 to 73 meters. He turned down the call to the chair for solid construction at the TH Munich, which he had received at the end of the 1940s. In bridge he was instrumental in the development of the balanced cantilever construction of prestressed concrete bridges involved. In 1951, the 62 m wide Lahn Bridge in Balduinstein was erected according to his design as the first prestressed concrete bridge in a free porch. Just two years later, using the same construction method, he designed the Nibelungen Bridge near Worms as the first prestressed concrete bridge over the Rhine , which has a maximum span of 114 m. It is also known Mangfallbrücke , a prestressed concrete truss structure, as girder bridge was built in the cantilever. The highlight was the Bendorfer Bridge over the Rhine, completed in 1965, with a record span for prestressed concrete girder bridges of 208 m. In 1973 he left Dyckerhoff & Widmann after 50 years.

Honors

In 1963 Finsterwalder received the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and in 1970 was honored with the Freyssinet Medal of the Fédération Internationale de la Précontrainte. In 1977 he was awarded the Award of Merit in Structural Engineering from the International Association for Bridge Construction and Building Construction (IVBH). In 1950 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the TH Darmstadt and in 1968 that from the Technical University of Munich.

Every two years the Ernst & Sohn publisher awards the Ulrich Finsterwalder Engineering Award, which is awarded to a project team for an excellent building for outstanding achievements in structural engineering.

Other structures

With the help of Ulrich Finsterwalder, the following structures were built

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dicleli, Cengiz: Ulrich Finsterwalder - engineer from passion . In: Deutsche Bauzeitung , issue 10/06, pp. 76–80
  2. ↑ a b Jutta Kriewitz: Ulrich Finsterwalder His life's work in a socio-political context
personal data
SURNAME Finsterwalder, Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German civil engineer (reinforced concrete shell construction and prestressed concrete)
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH 5th December 1988
Place of death Munich