Valentin Litz

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Valentin Litz (born January 21, 1879 in Gerolzhofen ; † January 2, 1950 ) was a German mechanical engineer and manager.

Life

After attending grammar school, Valentin Litz studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich and the Technical University of Charlottenburg . In 1899 he became a member of the Corps Vitruvia Munich. In 1902 he completed his studies in Berlin as a graduate engineer and began his professional career at the Augsburg-Nuremberg machine factory (MAN).

In 1904, Litz moved to the A. Borsig locomotive factory in Berlin-Tegel, the world's largest locomotive factory at the time, as a locomotive designer, where he initially worked on the design and construction of the C- Mallet locomotive for the Argentine Central-Nordbahn (1904) and the 2'C h2 - T 10 tank locomotive for the Prussian State Railways (1908) participated. In 1909 he switched to sales as an acquisition agent. In 1921 he was awarded a Dr.-Ing. At the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg . PhD. He was appointed to the management. On a trip to the USA, he familiarized himself with the modern production methods practiced there in the automotive and mechanical engineering industries, which he introduced at Borsig. In the period that followed, Litz became one of the key figures in the introduction of assembly line work in the German mechanical engineering industry.

As a result of the global economic crisis , locomotive construction was spun off from Borsig and continued from 1931 together with the locomotive construction activities of AEG as an independently managed joint venture between Borsig and AEG as Borsig-Lokomotiv-Werke GmbH (BLW). Litz became technical managing director of the new company and after relocating the company from Berlin-Tegel to Hennigsdorf first head of the Borsig locomotive factory in Hennigsdorf . Together with Adolf H. Wolff , the head of the design office, and Max Widdecke (1878–1959), he played a key role in the development and construction of streamlined locomotives, including the world-speed record steam locomotive of the DR class 05 .

Until the end of the Second World War , Litz was also executive chairman of the Association of the German Locomotive Industry, one of the predecessor associations of today's Association of the Railway Industry . After the beginning of the war it gradually became apparent that the previous form of locomotive construction and procurement by the Deutsche Reichsbahn was not able to procure new locomotives quickly enough for the enormously increased transport services caused by the war. Litz was instrumental in helping Gerhard Degenkolb , the head of the Main Committee for Rail Vehicles appointed by Albert Speer , in the Reich Ministry for Armaments and Ammunition , in shifting the construction and procurement process as far as possible from the Reichsbahn to industry.

After the Second World War, the plant was confiscated by the Soviet military administration . Litz was obliged to participate in the redesign of the Luhansk locomotive factory and the construction of the iron and steel works in Lugansk in what is now Ukraine before he died in 1950.

During his professional career, he published numerous publications on locomotive technology, both as an author and editor.

Fonts

  • The advantages of mass production of machine parts over their individual production in general mechanical engineering , 1921
  • Machine and manual labor time determination. Wage and offer calculation . In: Der Betrieb , Volume 4, 1921/22, pp. 313-315
  • Social Policy Travel Impressions in the United States (Lecture), 1925
  • Non-cutting forming - forging, punching, pressing, embossing, drawing (editor and editor), as Volume IV of the publications of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Betriebsingenieure , 1926 (further editors: M. Evers, F. Großmann, M. Lebeis, A. Peter)

literature

  • Under steam - history - Valentin Litz was the first boss of the Borsig locomotive factory in Hennigsdorf . In: Märkische Allgemeine from July 29, 2009, local section Oranienburg, page 4

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Philisterverein Vitruvia eV Munich, list of members as of January 1937, No. 227
  2. ↑ Jürgen Bönig: The introduction of assembly line work in Germany until 1933 - On the history of social innovation , Part 1, 1993, p. 106
  3. ^ Alfred Gottwaldt: Wagner's standard locomotives: The steam locomotives of the Reichsbahn and their creators , EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2012, ISBN 978-3882557381 , p. 154
personal data
SURNAME Litz, Valentin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mechanical engineer and manager
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Gerolzhofen
DATE OF DEATH 2nd January 1950