Willy Gehler

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Willy Gustav Gehler (born September 5, 1876 in Leipzig , † April 13, 1953 in Dresden ) was a German civil engineer and scientist .

life and work

After graduating from high school in 1895, Gehler first studied mathematics and natural sciences at the University of Leipzig and from 1896 at the Technical University of Dresden . It was not until 1898 that he changed the subject and studied civil engineering in Dresden . In 1899 he passed the first state examination as a prerequisite for a legal clerkship . In 1900 he was awarded the newly introduced degree in engineering for the first state examination . In 1902, after passing the second state examination, he was appointed government builder ( Assessor ) and worked in the bridge construction office of the Saxon State Railway and, at the same time, as an assistant to the engineering department of the Dresden University of Technology.

Atypical for the beginning of the 20th century, he switched to the private construction industry in 1905. His employer was the construction company Dyckerhoff & Widmann , which specializes in concrete and reinforced concrete . Initially working as a senior engineer and later promoted to technical director, he was one of the scientific pioneers of reinforced concrete construction alongside Emil Mörsch . The scientific penetration of the subject by Gehler helped that the young building material not only prevailed against traditional materials, but also that the high potential of reinforced concrete as a building material was shown. He participated in the planning and execution of the gas tank III in Dresden-Reick , the cross hall of the Leipzig central station and Breslauer Jahrhunderthalle .

At the same time he pursued his academic career on and, after 1909 at the Technical University Dresden with a dissertation contribution to the calculation of the frame doctorate . Shortly afterwards he qualified as a professor with the thesis Contribution to the calculation and observation of secondary stresses in iron truss bridges . From 1909 to 1913 he worked as a private lecturer at the Technical University of Dresden . Through his research, Gehler succeeded in establishing a basic theory of the framework. He was guided by concrete problems in building practice. Its precise analysis of framework structures should be the basis for the development of practical design methods. His theory of the framework therefore formed the basic theoretical foundation of the displacement quantity method .

From 1913 to 1945 Willy Gehler was a full professor for strength theory , building materials theory, structural engineering and steel bridge construction at the Technical University of Dresden and successor to his teacher Georg Christoph Mehrtens . During the time of the First World War he was assigned to work as a consultant in the technical staff of the War Office and from 1917 as head of the newly established building inspection center.

When he was appointed director of the structural engineering department of the testing and material testing office at the Dresden University of Technology in 1919, he took over the associated professorship for building materials. In return, he handed over the structural engineering department to the newly appointed Kurt Beyer . In his time as a professor, Gehler was primarily concerned with materials research, material testing, systematic damage research and experimental strength theory. The results of his experimental work, published in several edited volumes and monographs, his experience from engineering practice and his mathematical and physical competence paved the way for him to join many national and international specialist bodies and committees and produced an impact that went beyond pure university work.

Gehler joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933, and a little later also the SS with the status of a supporting member . The shot and fire bomb tests carried out on his initiative from 1933 onwards prove his active cooperation with the National Socialist rulers. In November 1933 he signed the German professors' confession of Adolf Hitler .

Despite his collaboration with the National Socialists, he was able to continue his research and committee work after 1945, albeit in a less exposed position, thanks to his high level of professional competence. From 1948 he was head of the Saxony State Committee for Standardization and Typing in the Building Industry. Shortly before his death, he finished a seminal paper on the buckling rod problem.

Willy Gehler died of heart failure in Dresden on April 13, 1953 and was buried in the Tolkewitz urn grove .

Honors

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl-Eugen Kurrer : The History of the Theory of Structures. Searching for Equilibrium . Ernst & Sohn , Berlin 2018, pp. 806f., ISBN 978-3-433-03229-9 .
  2. ↑ GoogleBooks
personal data
SURNAME Gehler, Willy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gehler, Willy Gustav (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German civil engineer and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH September 5, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1953
Place of death Dresden