Werner Usbeck (engineer)

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Werner Usbeck (born February 18, 1881 in Jerichow ; † February 1, 1947 in special camp No. 2 Buchenwald ) was a German mechanical engineer and railroad worker. At the Deutsche Reichsbahn he was responsible for the electrification of the rail network in Silesia and Central Germany , as well as for the introduction of direct current operation on the Hamburg S-Bahn .

Life

Hermann Eduard Adolf Werner Usbeck was born the son of a pastor in Jerichow. He spent his youth in his birthplace and the neighboring Parchen . After his school career, most recently at the high school in Burg , he studied mechanical engineering at the TH Hannover from 1899 to 1903 . After taking the exam for Regierungsbaumeister he went in 1903 to the Prussian state railways to Royal Railway Directorate Frankfurt , followed by a switch to the Directorate of Magdeburg . In 1907 he passed the second state examination . Usbeck had already shown interest in questions of electrification and was therefore selected as a member of a working group that was supposed to investigate and prepare the electrification of Prussian railway lines. From 1908 to 1911 the railway administration delegated him to AEG in Berlin , where he was to gain further experience. As an AEG employee, he was involved in the first electrification of a main line in Prussia , the Bitterfeld-Dessau railway line .

In August 1911 Usbeck returned to the service of the Prussian State Railways and took over the new construction office for the electrification of the Silesian mountain railways in Hirschberg as a member of the board . As a result of the First World War , electrification work in Silesia came to a considerable standstill, but unlike in Central Germany, electric rail operations could be maintained. Usbeck was to remain in Silesia until 1935, interrupted by military service, most recently as an expert on the Armistice Commission set up after the Armistice of Compiègne and for a short time as chairman of the Reichsbahn- Maschinenamt in Leipzig from 1920 to 1921.

Görlitz station around 1923 with a new overhead line

From 1921 Usbeck was head of the department for electric train operations at the Reichsbahndirektion Breslau . In this position he was responsible for the further electrification of the Silesian railway lines, including the development of overhead lines and traction power supply, as well as the procurement and use of the corresponding electric locomotives and railcars . Under his aegis, the electrical route network of the Reichsbahn in Silesia grew from approx. 93 km at the end of 1919 to around 390 km at the end of 1932. The Reichsbahn succeeded in moving from the more experimental stage at the time of the Prussian State Railways to permanently reliable and economical operation. He was particularly interested in the use of railcars, and electric railcars were accordingly procured and used on a larger scale in the Silesian network in comparison with the other electrical networks of the Reichsbahn in southern and central Germany. Usbeck published a lot on the results and experiences of the electrical railway operation in Silesia, especially in specialist journals such as the electrical engineering journal , the VDI journal and the electrical railways . The Technical University of Wroclaw recognized Usbeck's achievements for the electrical full-line operation in 1931 with the award of an honorary doctorate .

In the mid-1930s, the Reichsbahn decided to replace the alternating current operation of the Hamburg S-Bahn, introduced in 1907 and now obsolete both in terms of vehicles and traction power, with operation with direct current and power rails based on the model of the Berlin S-Bahn . This project was entrusted to Werner Usbeck, who therefore moved to the Reichsbahndirektion Altona in 1935 as head of the mechanical engineering department .

After the occupation of Poland during the invasion of Poland , the Reichsbahn set up the Reichsbahndirektion Danzig on November 1, 1939 . Usbeck, who had become a member of the NSDAP in 1938 , was promoted to vice-president of the management. A year later, from November 1, 1940, he became President of the Reich Railway Directorate in Halle . In this function, he was responsible, among other things, for closing the gap between the electrical rail networks in central and southern Germany. Using forced labor and prisoners of war , Usbeck achieved this goal despite the war-related shortage of materials. On November 2, 1942, the Reichsbahn began electrical operations between Weißenfels and Leipzig .

After the end of the war, Usbeck was arrested by the Soviet occupying forces in August 1945 for the use of forced labor and interned on charges as a war criminal . He was initially held in Torgau , and later in special camp No. 2 in Buchenwald. He died here in February 1947.

Fonts (selection)

literature

  • Peter Glanert, Thomas Scherrans, Thomas Borbe, Ralph Lüderitz: AC train operation in Germany, Volume 2: Electric to the Silesian Mountains - 1911 to 1945 , Oldenbourg Industrieverlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-8356-3218-9

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Glanert, Thomas Scherrans, Thomas Borbe, Ralph Lüderitz: AC train operation in Germany, Volume 1: Through the Central German lignite area - 1900 to 1947 , Oldenbourg Industrieverlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-8356-3217-2 , p. 176
personal data
SURNAME Usbeck, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mechanical engineer and railway worker
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Jerichow
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 1947
Place of death Special camp No. 2 Buchenwald