Walter Georgii (meteorologist)

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Walter Georgii (born August 12, 1888 in Meiningen , † July 24, 1968 in Munich ) was a meteorologist and a pioneer of glider research .

Life

Georgii studied physics, mathematics and geography in Jena and Leipzig . He completed his studies in 1913 with a doctorate on the climate in his hometown Meiningen, and in 1914 he also passed the state examination. Since studying in Leipzig, he was a member of the Leipzig University Choir of St. Pauli in Mainz ( German Choir ). During the First World War he was employed as a meteorologist off Verdun and in North Africa (Egypt). In 1919 he completed his habilitation at the University of Frankfurt , where he then headed the weather service department of the University Institute for Meteorology and Geophysics until 1924. In 1924/25 Georgii headed a department of the Reichssee and Wetterwarte Hamburg. In 1926 he was appointed associate professor for aviation meteorology at the Technical University of Darmstadt . At the same time, he took over the management of the research institute of the Rhön-Rossitten-Gesellschaft (RRG), which was renamed the German Research Institute for Glider Flight in 1933 and the German Research Institute for Glider Flight (DFS) in 1937 . By 1945 he developed the DFS as head of one of the major aviation research institutes. From 1937 to 1945 he was also the chairman of the examination committee of the Aviation Engineering School (IfL), which was affiliated with DFS.

In 1937 Georgii joined the NSDAP . In the same year he was appointed to a research professorship in the Reich Service in Berlin. So he was in fact subject to the Ministry of Aviation. He was appointed military economic leader and he became chairman for stratospheric research at the German Academy of Aviation Research. In 1942 he became a member of a four-person research leadership of the Reich Aviation Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force , which was supposed to organize and coordinate the war contribution of German aviation research. From 1943 until the end of the war, Georgii was the managing director of this body.

After the war he first entered French service; from 1948 he worked as a consulting meteorologist in Argentina . From 1950 to 1955 he was professor for aerophysics in Mendoza and after his return to Germany in 1955 he resumed work at the newly established DFS. In 1960 the DFS was transferred to the Aviation Research Institute Munich (FFM) , which was incorporated into the German Aviation Research Institute (DVL) in 1963 . From this time on Georgii continued to work closely with the institute as a research assistant.

The importance of Georgiis lies primarily in his commitment to building up glider research with the aim of scientifically substantiating gliding and developing the glider as a means of research and transport. His numerous scientific expeditions abroad created worldwide contacts and recognition. From 1930 until the outbreak of war he was President of the International Study Commission for Gliding (ISTUS) and from 1948 Honorary President of its successor organization OSTIV (Organization Scientifique et Technique du Vol à Voile).

His son Hans-Walter Georgii was also a meteorologist.

Honors

  • On April 16, 1997, a place in front of the former airfield on Griesheimer Sand was named after Georgii. In May 2019, the city council of Darmstadt decided to withdraw these honors.

literature

  • Walter Georgii: Research and Flying , Hauschild Verlag , ISBN 3-931785-54-8
  • Walter Georgii , in: Ernst Klee : Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. P. 179, S. Fischer-Verlag, Hamburg 2003.
  • On the death of Professor Walter Georgii , DVL-Nachrichten, issue 37, October 1968. P. 370.
  • Walter Georgii 70 years , in: Zeitschrift für Flugwissenschaften , Issue 8, June 1958
  • Georgii, Walter , in: Yearbook of the German Academy of Aviation Research, 1941/1942, pp. 145f
  • Detlev Mares: The meteorologist as a romantic. Research and flying with Walter Georgii , in: A century of aviation history between tradition, research and landscape management , ed. by Andreas Göller and Annegret Holtmann, Darmstadt 2008, pp. 239–266.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Seidel, Willmar Sichler: Directory of the members of the Association of the Old Paulines in Leipzig 1937 , page 15
personal data
SURNAME Georgii, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German meteorologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Meiningen
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 1968
Place of death Munich