Wilhelm Jakobs

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Wilhelm Jakobs around 1900

Wilhelm Jakobs (born February 10, 1858 in Diezenkausen near Waldbröl , † February 3, 1942 in Bonn) was a railway engineer and construction officer.

Life

Early years and education

Wilhelm Jakobs was the oldest child of Wilhelm Jakobs (1832–1913) and Luise geb. Simon. The father, a respected farmer and blacksmith, held public offices, possessed poetic inclinations and was known to the Waldbrölern as the “poet behind the plow”.

The young Wilhelm first attended the elementary school in Waldbröl, then the higher middle school. From 1874 to high school on July 17, 1877, he attended the real department of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Cologne . On October 9, 1877, he enrolled at the former industrial academy (later the technical college / university) in Berlin in the field of mechanical engineering. On November 22, 1882, he passed the first state examination for mechanical engineering there.

After various practical activities in railway workshops and doing military service as a one-year volunteer in the railway regiment, he then worked in Hanover with locomotive construction. In the years 1886 to 1888 he passed the locomotive test and from July 16, 1888 was a railway official at the railway management in Cologne.

On August 28, 1895 he married Else Luyken and founded his first household in St. Johann. With Else he had a total of 5 sons who were born between 1896 and 1905. In 1896 Wilhelm was called back to Cologne, but in 1900 he resigned from the civil service after taking over the management of the wagon factory in Rastatt . On April 10, 1901, he received the patent from the Imperial Patent Office for a "passenger car, consisting of several articulated interconnected departments, two of which rest with the ends facing each other on a common bogie". The Jakobs bogie , later named after him, is now used by many railcars and multiple units all over the world. In this construction, two adjacent ends of the car body of railway vehicles are supported on a common bogie , which saves effort and weight.

In the spring of 1914, the Association of German Wagon Factory was founded in Berlin. Jakobs became one of the two managing directors and moved with his family to Berlin-Dahlem .

First World War

Wilhelm Jakobs moved in at the beginning of the First World War on the second day of mobilization as captain of the reserve and company leader of the Reserve Railway Construction Company 9 and came with his company to Belgium in mid-August , where the Libramont station was restored.

From September to November 1914, the war railway bridges were built over the Meuse at Charleville-Mézières , over the Scheldt at Ename and at Audenarde , and the Sodeghem – Kortrijk railway and stations were restored and made operational. Then the railway from Roeselare to Moorslede and Ypres was put into operation. At the turn of the year 1914/15, the Torhout - Ostend and Thourout - Ypres railways were taken over and expanded. At Ostend the heavy artillery was brought onto the dunes and the lighthouse was set up to be blown up. In April 1915 Wilhelm Jakobs directed the railway operations for the attack on Ypres and during the fighting that followed. In July 1915 he was transferred to the 5th Army (Crown Prince Army) and appointed chief of the building management of this army; on November 30, 1915 he was promoted to major in the reserve.

In the winter of 1915/16, the subordinate tram companies and temporarily assigned troop divisions prepared the routes for the attack and attack on Verdun in the area of ​​the 5th Army and built and maintained them during the attack and the fighting in front of Verdun. The repair of the locks has also begun to make the Maas Canal operational again after Verdun . In autumn 1916 Wilhelm Jakobs, who had been awarded the Iron Cross II and I Class and the Knight's Cross I , was recalled from the field to re-enter the management of the Association of German Wagon Factories, as the need for new railway wagons was necessary during the war has been. At the same time, Wilhelm was also active in the vehicle committee until it was dissolved.

The further development of the war filled him, who was close to the Pan-German Association and its far-reaching war aims, with increasing bitterness and concern. In 1917/18 he also supported the appearance of the so-called Fatherland Party . On October 28, 1918, a few days before the end of the monarchy, he was given the title of “Royal Building Council”. As “Jacob's builder”, he remained in the memory of the Waldbrölers until after his death.

The lost war, the revolution and the Treaty of Versailles hit him hard . In December 1918 he participated in the founding of the German National People's Party , for which he also ran in Reichstag elections, but without winning a seat. In March 1921 the Association of German Waggonfabriken was dissolved and an Association of German Waggonfabriken was founded, which was also dissolved in October 1923, whereby Wilhelm Jakobs lost his job. He was now 65 years old, but the forced retirement bothered him internally for a long time. The only thing that gave him a certain satisfaction was the production of the Jakobs articulated car based on his invention, which began in the 1920s and in which he occasionally contributed.

death

In October 1926 Wilhelm Jakobs sold his house in Berlin-Dahlem and moved with his wife to Bensheim an der Bergstrasse, but in 1931 he moved to his home village of Diezenkausen. In 1939, at the age of 80, Wilhelm Jakobs also gave up the house in Diezenkausen and moved with his wife to a pension in Bonn , where he died of a stroke on February 3, 1942.

literature

  • Karl Sachs: Electric traction vehicles. Huber, Frauenfeld 1953.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Articulated trolley for railroad trains, patent number: AT 11 726 B