Wilhelm Bauer (engineer)

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Wilhelm Bauer, 1860

Sebastian Wilhelm Valentin Bauer (born December 23, 1822 in Dillingen an der Donau , † June 20, 1875 in Munich ) was a German inventor who built the first modern submarine according to his plans in Kiel and who took part in a diving attempt in 1851.

Life

Wilhelm Bauer's grave in the Old Northern Cemetery in Munich

Wilhelm Bauer first learned the woodworking trade and then joined a cavalry regiment. There he invented a hoist to transport cannons. In the rank of corporal , Bauer took part in the 10th field battery of the Bavarian auxiliary corps in the Schleswig-Holstein War . Bauer himself later reported that he had the idea of a moving below the surface Branders in the storming of the Diippel had come when he had been brooding about how the Danish naval blockade would break. Allegedly, when he saw Danish units advancing over a pontoon bridge near Sønderborg, he got the idea of ​​being able to create a line of defense through the use of an underwater weapon - in this case for the Saxon brigade shot at by the Danes. Although Bauer's ideas were preceded by some inventions in the field of submarine construction, such as Count Wilhelm von Schaumburg-Lippe's "fish" boat or Klingert's diving apparatus, it is not certain that Bauer was aware of these developments at the end of the 18th century.

While he was still on duty in Jutland , Bauer studied the seals ' natural motion sequences in order to use this knowledge to design a technical device. But the Berlin armistice of July 10, 1849 ended the deployment of the troops of the German Confederation , and Bauer had to return to Bavaria. In the autumn of 1849 he presented his draft to an expert commission. The rejection of the draft prompted Bauer to return to Schleswig-Holstein, according to his own statements. He retired from the Bavarian army and applied to the Schleswig-Holstein army as an artillery officer. On January 30, 1850, he joined the Schleswig-Holstein army as a sergeant . The soldier was stationed in Rendsburg .

Constructions

Fire divers

Sketch of the fire diver
The fire diver in the museum in Dresden
Model of the fire diver
Model of the fire diver in a bottle

After a few model tests in Ingolstadt and Munich and joining the Schleswig-Holstein army, Bauer presented his plans to the local naval ministry, where the project was positively assessed and funding of 30 Prussian thalers was approved. Bauer was ordered to Kiel in March 1850 to realize a model , combined with an order from the Schleswig-Holstein flotilla ( Navy ) to set up a commission. Using plans, she should examine the chances of the apparatus. The commission reached a balanced judgment. Together with a mechanic from Kiel, Bauer constructed an approximately 70 cm long buoyant diving apparatus, the three-winged screw of which was driven by a clockwork. The teardrop-shaped copper cylinder could be trimmed using a lead weight that could be moved inside and controlled using a movable stern rudder. However, after the successful demonstration of the model diving apparatus in the port of Kiel did not lead to an order, Bauer smashed the model for fear of the theft of its intellectual property and from then on tried to finance a first apparatus privately.

For this, Bauer initially received a leave of absence and then more and more support after Karl Wilhelm von Willisen, the commander of the Schleswig-Holstein troops, had learned of his ideas. At his suggestion, some officers formed a committee to build the arsonist . First, some parts of the apparatus were built in Büdelsdorf in the Carlshütte . But due to a lack of capacity, the construction of the first submarine called Brandtaucher - also known as the Iron Seal because of its unusual shape - continued in Kiel. The name of the device contains fire as the first component as a designation for an "explosive body". The fire diver was manufactured by August Howaldt at the machine works and iron foundry Schweffel & Howaldt in Kiel . Bauer had been able to push through his plan there against massive resistance from contemporary experts, but had not been able to raise the necessary funds. After the decision to build, the design plans had to be drastically changed for cost reasons. The wall thickness was significantly reduced from 12.5 mm to 6 mm, the frame spacing increased, the intended trimming by ballast and trimming tanks was replaced by a sliding weight made of 500 kg cast iron, the ballast water was directed into the hull instead of into ballast tanks. Bauer warned that with these measures the buoyancy of the vehicle would not exceed a maximum diving depth of 9.5 m and that the planned performance of 30 m would not be achievable, but was not heard. In December 1850 he carried out his first diving attempts in the fjord. For this purpose, the fire diver was pulled into the water by a rope winch through a ship belonging to the Schleswig-Holstein Navy, the paddle steamer Bonin . After the successful test drive, the vehicle was moored next to the Bonin , where it sank due to an operating error. The fire diver was lifted, repaired and 16 days later the testing could be continued.

Due to the collapse of the Schleswig-Holstein survey , Wilhelm Bauer, together with the carpenter Friedrich Witt and the blacksmith Thomsen, started a test drive of the fire diver on February 1, 1851 . The submarine was not yet completed and, for lack of money, it was also imperfectly equipped. It sank to the bottom of the Kiel Fjord. The hull gave way and water collapsed. The crew was able to save themselves on their own. In the summer of 1887, the fire diver was rescued during the construction of the Kiel torpedo port. Today it is in the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden. A functional model of a diving boat by Wilhelm Bauer from 1852 is in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

The scuba diver should attack ships, bridges and port facilities below the waterline and set them on fire. From inside the boat, an explosive body weighing around 50 kg, the fire , was to be attached to the enemy objects using gauntlets and gripping arms . Based on this idea, the first German and oldest surviving submarine in the world bears the name Brandtaucher.

Diving boat fire divers Dimensions
length 8.07 m
width 2 m
height 3.76 m
displacement 30.5 t (immersed)

monkfish

After Schleswig-Holstein was handed over to Denmark, the development of submersibles was stopped and Bauer returned to Munich. There he developed his ideas further and presented the case developed models, among others, King Ludwig I , King Maximillian II. And Franz Joseph I. before. However, no specific construction contracts arose from these encounters. At the invitation of the English Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , Bauer finally traveled to London, where he began building another submersible in collaboration with a London shipyard. When he found out that he was bound to this project by a contract that was risky for him, but had no influence on the course of the construction, he publicly considered realizing his invention with Russian support. Since Russia was enemies with Great Britain at that time, Bauer had to flee England. Bauer traveled to Russia at the invitation of Grand Admiral Prince Konstantin, which at that time was in the Crimean War and therefore needed Bauer's inventions. The London shipyard completed the submerged body that had begun without Bauer's expertise - the vehicle sank during the test drive together with the crew.

New beginning in Russia

From May to November 1855, the submarine Seeteufel was built under Bauer's direction in Saint Petersburg . The diving boat was given the French name Le Diable de Marin . Its diving body had an iron outer shell about ten centimeters thick. The monkfish , which was tested in the naval port of Kronstadt in 1855 , was propelled by muscle power, could sink and rise independently and even be laid aground. The monkfish was about twice as big as the burnt diver .

Dive boat monkfish Dimensions
length 16.32 m
width 3.45 m
Frame spacing 31 cm
Diving depth 47 m

The crew of twelve sailors was trained in the handling of diving suits, as the boat had a diving chamber that enabled entry and exit from the submerged boat. The anglerfish made 133 successful dives; then it sank due to an operator error. The crew managed to save themselves. The boat was lifted, but its whereabouts are unknown. Bauer was made an imperial submarine engineer and was given the job of lifting a sunken ship of the line . He then constructed a diving chamber and lifting balloons. In addition to this, Bauer developed other ideas on behalf of the Russian Navy, for example he designed an icebreaker, but traveled back to Munich in 1858 after disputes with the authorities.

Further developments and end of life

An underwater shooting attempt by Bauer at Lake Starnberg, 1867

In 1858 he went to Lindau , where he further developed his equipment for ship salvage and cable laying. In 1863 it was possible to lift the steamer Ludwig , which had sunk two years earlier . The then managing director of the German National Association Feodor Streit supported him with a personal advance of 6000 thalers. An excursion into Prussian services was short-lived because he did not receive the necessary support. Back in Konstanz , Bauer continued to develop devices for laying cables and made successful attempts at underwater shooting.

Wilhelm Bauer spent the last years of his life as a pensioner in Munich. In 1874 his daughter Constanze died, who had helped the farmer, who had meanwhile been paralyzed on one side, with paperwork. Bauer himself died a year later. His grave is in the Old Northern Cemetery in Munich.

Honors

Sculpture in Kiel
Sculpture at the new location in Kiel

Artwork in Kiel

In 2004 the Gesellschaft für Kieler Stadtgeschichte commissioned a bronze bust of the diving boat pioneer. It was made by the sculptor Manfred Sihle-Wissel and set up on the banks of the Kiel Fjord . During the renovation of the nearby Maritime Museum , however, the bust was dismantled in 2014 and the base leveled for unknown reasons. Since then, the work of art has been kept in the Kiel museum depot. In the presence of the sculptor Manfred Sihle-Wissel, the bust was re-erected in March 2020 at the new location in Germaniahafen an der Hörn.

Publications

  • Wilhelm Bauer's report of February 15, 1851 in: Ludwig Hauff: The submarine shipping, invented and carried out by Wilhelm Bauer. Bamberg 1913, pp. 9-16
    • Reprinted in: Christa Geckeler (Ed.): Memories of Kiel in Danish times 1773/1864. Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 2012, ISBN 978-3-89876-618-0 , pp. 207-213
  • The underwater gun . In: The Gazebo . Issue 21, 1867, pp. 332-335 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).

reception

The story of Wilhelm Bauer provided the material for the propaganda films High Sounds, the Song of the U-Boat Man from 1914 and Secret Files WB 1 from 1941, as well as for the novel "The Iron Seal" by Hans Arthur Thies. The volume Der eiserne Seehund was published by Luebbe in 1985 . The adventurous life of the submarine inventor Wilhelm Bauer by the young adult author Heinz Straub.

The filmmaker Zoran Simic , who lives in Kiel, reconstructed the life of Bauer and the construction history of the fire diver in his documentary "Submarine Engineer" in 2007. In many 3D graphic sequences, he illustrates how the submarine works. In 2008 the 57-minute version of the film Submarine Engineer was shown in the municipal cinema in the event center pump in Kiel.

The mosaic by Hannes Hegen was honored by Bauer in issues 85–88.

Around 1957 appeared in the comic series Adventure of World History. The interesting youth magazine , which was published by the Walter-Lehning-Verlag in Hanover , with issue 63 a comic about Wilhelm Bauer: Wilhelm Bauer. The dream of the submarine .

literature

  • Antonius Lux (ed.): Great men of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag, Munich 1960, p. 42
  • Klaus Herold: The Kieler Brandtaucher: Wilhelm Bauer's first diving boat; Results of an investigation . Bernard and Graefe, Bonn 1993, ISBN 978-3-7637-5918-7 .

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Bauer (Ingenieur)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Wilhelm Bauer's undersea journeys  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Eberhard Rössler: "History of German U-Boatbuilding. Volume 1. Development, construction and properties of German submarines from their beginnings to 1943 , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-86047-153 -8 , page 16
  2. ↑ a b c Report of Wilhelm Bauer from February 15, 1851 in: Ludwig Hauff: The submarine shipping, invented and carried out by Wilhelm Bauer. Bamberg 1913, pp. 9–16, reprint in: Christa Geckeler (Ed.): Memories of Kiel in Danish times 1773/1864. Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 2012, pp. 207–213.
  3. ↑ Christin-Désirée Rudolph: Ocean Eyes. The submarine squadron of the German Navy. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-613-03217-0 , p. 32.
  4. ↑ a b Ulrich Gabler: " Unterseebootbau ", Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-7637-5958-1 , page 9
  5. ↑ Eberhard Rössler: "History of German U-Boatbuilding. Volume 1. Development, construction and properties of German submarines from the beginnings to 1943 , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-86047-153-8 , page 18
  6. ↑ The Kiel fire diver . Society for Schleswig-Holstein History; accessed on February 24, 2015
  7. ↑ a b Eberhard Rössler: "History of German U-Boatbuilding. Volume 1. Development, construction and properties of German submarines from the beginnings to 1943 , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-86047-153-8 , Pages 21–23
  8. ^ Friedhelm Hoffmann: Wilhelm Bauer's submarine journeys , Die Gartenlaube , Issue 35, Verlag Ernst Keil, Leipzig 1863
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Frank: "The wolves and the admiral submarines in combat , Weltbild, Augsburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8289-0875-8 , page 18
  10. ^ "Die Gartenlaube ", Issue 52, Ernst Keil Verlag, Leipzig 1874
  11. ↑ Submarine pioneer never reappeared , online edition of shz from November 28, 2018
  12. ↑ Famous Kieler gathering dust in the magazine online edition of Kieler Nachrichten on April 11, 2019
  13. ↑ Bronze bust of the submarine pioneer Wilhelm Bauer placed again in Kiel shz.de from March 31, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Bauer, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bauer, Sebastian Wilhelm Valentin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German shipbuilder, builder of the first modern submarines
DATE OF BIRTH December 23, 1822
PLACE OF BIRTH Dillingen on the Danube
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1875
Place of death Munich