Walter Eilender

Walter Lothar Eduard hurrying (* 12. August 1880 in Cologne , † 8. September 1959 in Bad Mergentheim ) was a German metallurgist and longtime director of the institute for metallurgy and foundry at the RWTH Aachen .

Live and act

After graduating from high school in 1899, Eilender studied at RWTH Aachen University until 1905, completing his studies with an engineering degree. He then became an assistant under Fritz Wüst taken to the Institute of Ferrous Metallurgy, before moving to the 1907 industry changed. He stayed here until 1928 , only interrupted by a military mission during the First World War . Most of all, he was involved there with research work on war-relevant materials, which were intended to compensate for the effects of the blockade of various raw materials by the Allies .

He then accepted a call back to the TH Aachen, where he was appointed full professor for the field of metallurgy on October 1, 1928 and promoted to director of the faculty for materials management, specialist metallurgy department. At that time, this specialist department was one of the largest and most renowned university departments for metallurgy in Germany and more than half of all metallurgists completed their studies here. His main areas of work included research into the further development of steelmaking processes, alloy technology and the surface treatment of steel parts, the influence of the manganese and aluminum content of steel, through-hardening and tempering of structural steels, and the influence of the structure on the behavior of low-carbon steel in resistance welding .

In 1931 Eilender succeeded in setting up a laboratory for materials testing with the help of X-rays at his institute . In 1933, however, he had to vehemently defend himself against the fact that the Reich Ministry of Education wanted to introduce a numerus clausus for the TH Aachen in the field of iron and steel in order to compensate for the poorer workload at the universities in Berlin and Breslau and otherwise he would expect massive disadvantages would have. In order to emphasize his objections and to get the local politicians as well as various associations and those responsible for heavy industry on his side, he finally joined the NSDAP in the same year .

However, Eilender stayed out of active party politics and limited himself exclusively to his research and teaching activities, thereby placing himself and his institute in a strong position with regard to the importance for the development and production of war-relevant technology. Because despite his political reluctance, his rejection of the divorce imposed on him from his " quarter Jewish " wife and the suspicion of operating industrial espionage for the Soviet Union, whereby the proceedings were discontinued, the Reich Ministry of Education appointed him in 1943 as the TH's shop steward at the Reich Research Council and in 1944 as branch manager of the Defense Research Association.

After the Second World War , Eilender was significantly involved in the reconstruction of the TH and its institute as well as in the development of the Aachen student union . In addition, he temporarily took over the supervision of the orphaned chair for sculptural design until he was reoccupied, and from 1947 until his death he was chairman of the State Materials Testing Office .

Even after his retirement in 1949, Eilender continued to work for the university. Among other things, he sponsored the construction of the new Academica cafeteria and continued to write numerous publications .

Honors

• On June 26, 1922, Walter Eilender was honored in "recognition of his great services to the German special steel industry", especially for his war-important research and work at a time when the German armaments industry was cut off due to the Allied blockade of raw materials after the First World War Honorary doctorate from RWTH Aachen University.
• Furthermore, in 1950 he was declared an honorary citizen of RWTH Aachen “in recognition of his services to the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen and the reconstruction of the student body” .
• Finally, he was appointed on May 14, 1959 “in recognition of his successes as a researcher and academic teacher for iron and steel engineering and in recognition of his selfless commitment as supervisor of the chair for sculptural design as well as for his outstanding contributions to the development of student welfare and welfare institutions at the technical university Aachen ”to its honorary senator .
• Honorary membership in the student union Aachen
• Posthumously in 1968 one of the Aachen student towers was named " Walter-Eilender-Haus " in his honor and in memory .

Works (selection)

• Herbert Jurich and Walter Eilender: Influence of the nitrogen content of small converter steel by different types of blowing , Verl. Stahleisen, 1948
• Max Hauck and Walter Eilender: Influence of the melting conditions on the hardening of unalloyed Siemens-Martin steels with 0.4 to 1.0% C. , Verl. Stahleisen, 1950
• Walter Eilender, Heinrich Arend and Werner Neuhaus: The formation of spots in welded joints , Verl. Stahleisen, 1951
• Walter Eilender, Heinrich Arend and Werner Neuhaus: Improvement of the mechanical properties of low-alloy quenched and tempered steels by coordinating the heat treatment temperatures and times , Verl. Stahleisen, 1952
• Walter Eilender, Robert Mintrop, and Willy Lutz: Investigations into the interstage tempering of hot-work steels , Verl. Stahleisen, 1952
• Walter Eilender and Josef Schoop: Influence on the durability of basic converter linings , Verl. Stahleisen, 1952
• Walter Eilender and Heinrich Arend: Process to achieve an intermediate structure in cylindrical parts of medium diameter made of chromium-molybdenum heat-treatable steel , Verl. Stahleisen, 1954

Literature and Sources

• Literature by and about Walter Eilender in the catalog of the German National Library
• Ulrich Kalkmann: The Technical University of Aachen in the Third Reich (1933-1945) . Verlag Mainz, Aachen 2003, ISBN 3-86130-181-4 , ( Aachen Studies on Technology and Society 4), (At the same time: Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2003), p. 508 ff., [1] .
• Kürschner's German Scholar's Calendar . 1931. Col. 574.

Web links

• Institute for Metallurgy ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
• Groups of people - Honorary Senators / Historical Institute of the RWTH

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung, 1922, p. 335 ( Memento of the original from June 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 6, 2012