Werner Köster

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Werner Otto Köster (born November 22, 1896 in Hamburg , † March 30, 1989 in Frankenthal ) was a German chemist ( physical chemistry , metallurgy ).

Köster was the son of a businessman, grew up in Hamburg (Abitur at Wilhelms-Gymnasium) and, after military service in World War I, studied natural sciences and especially chemistry in Hamburg, Freiburg and Göttingen from 1919, where he received his doctorate under Gustav Tammann in 1922 (The speed of Effects of oxygen, hydrogen sulfide and halogens on metals). He then worked as an assistant at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Iron Research in Düsseldorf with Friedrich Körber , where he dealt with heat treatment of steel and materials testing, and from 1924 in industry. First was at the Schweizerische Metallwerke Selve in Thun (which had their main focus on brass) and from 1927 head of department at the research institute of the United Steelworks in Dortmund. In 1933/34 he was head of the research laboratory of the Deutsche Edelstahlwerke in Krefeld and from 1934 director of the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart and full professor of applied metal science at the TH Stuttgart. The Stuttgart institute comprised the existing ones from Georg Grube (physical chemistry of metals) and Richard Glocker (metal physics). Köster headed the entire institute and the sub-institute for metal science and ensured close contacts with industry. During the Second World War he was closely involved in arms research, for example in aviation (and he headed the non-ferrous metals division of the Reich Research Council) and in 1940 he joined the NSDAP. In 1945/46 he was temporarily interned by the Americans, but in 1948 he resumed his post as director of the Max Planck Institute and his professorship, as he was only classified as a follower in the denazification process. Despite offers from the Americans to work in the USA, he stayed in Stuttgart and rebuilt his institute. In 1957/58 he was rector of the TH Stuttgart and in 1965 he retired.

At the United Steel Works he developed new materials for permanent magnets. He also dealt with phase diagrams, microstructure and atomic structure of alloys, heat treatment and deformation of metals and alloys and he held several patents. He was very versatile and published around 340 papers.

In 1952 he received the Heyn memorial coin of the German Society for Metallurgy, in 1956 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the TU Berlin and received the Golden Luigi Losana Medal of the Italian Metallurgical Society, in 1962 the platinum medal of the London Institute for Metals, and in 1965 he was the first winner of the ICIFUAS Prize (today the Zener Prize ). In 1966 he received the Great Federal Cross of Merit and in 1973 the Order of the Holy Treasure 2nd class in Japan.

He was a member of the Leopoldina since 1959 , honorary member of the Iron and Steel Institute in Madrid, the French Metallurgical Society (1961).

The Werner Köster Prize of the German Society for Material Science was named in his honor and has been awarded since 1992.

From 1936 to 1976 he was the editor of the Zeitschrift für Metallkunde and he published the series Reine und angewandte Metallkunde in individual presentations.

He married Ilse Kerschbaum in 1923 and had a daughter and two sons.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Berlin Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Metal Research was dissolved in 1933 for economic reasons
  2. ↑ Member entry of Werner Köster at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on February 21, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Köster, Werner
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Köster, Werner Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH March 30, 1989
Place of death Frankenthal