Georg Knorr

Ernst Theodor Georg Knorr (* October 19, 1859 in Ruda district Neumark, West Prussia, † April 15, 1911 in Davos, Switzerland ) was an engineer and entrepreneur in the field of railroad technology and founder of the eponymous company Knorr-Bremse.

Life and work

Georg Knorr attended the High School until 1876 and then received a practical education in a railway workshop. He attended only the pilot in Einbeck and then the Polytechnic Institute in Braunschweig. While studying in Einbeck and Braunschweig, he was a member of the fraternity Thuringia in Braunschweig. Later he became a member of the fraternity Gothia Berlin. After the successful completion he worked in the railway workshop Krefeld from where he was taken (in Berlin -Tiergarten seat at the Schöneberg bank 17) in the Berlin office of the American engineer Jesse Fairfield Carpenter in 1884, taking charge of the introduction of the two-chamber manufactured by him air brake on the German market struggled. After the brake by Carpenter in the European market could not prevail, these retired to the United States. Georg Knorr took over in 1893, Carpenter & Schulze, maintaining the company name.

Georg Knorr moved production to Berlin - Britz and developed here in 1900, itself a new brake, the Knorr- Einkammerschnellbremse. The Knorr -Bremse was introduced at the German railways for freight trains and soon as a unit brake in all European railways since 1905. With the mass production of its brake on expansion of production was needed, what Knorr in the autumn of 1904 after Boxhagen - Rummelsburg moved (later called Old Factory ) in an existing factory building in the New Station Street 11/12.

1905 Georg Knorr founded the company finally Knorr- Bremse GmbH and also bought the neighboring property No. 13/14 added. In order to expand production, he left here by the architect Alfred Grenander build the new factory. As this soon became insufficient for the growing demand, extensions were made ​​beyond the railway line in the Jeleniogórska road.

Together with the engineers Kunze and Hildebrand drove Knorr the development of the railway compressed air braking systems, there arose the Kunze -Knorr brake ( a mehrlösige composite brake, which can be as often as you create and solve stages ) and later the Hildebrand -Knorr -Bremse ( a working according to the three- print set mehrlösige brake, acting on all cars of a train at the same time ). 1911 success became so great that the necessary expansion of production on a large scale borrowing was required: The company was founded under the name of Knorr -Bremse AG ( Knorr -Bremse AG ) was converted into a public limited company with four million marks capital. Knorr himself held 17.6 percent of the shares.

1910 had to resign from the company management due to health reasons Georg Knorr. He suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis. With a break here in Davos, he died 1911. Since the family had their residence in Lichtenberg, Georg Knorr was in the family tomb in the cemetery of the Protestant church to good news (Berlin) in today's Robert Siewert - street in the Berlin district of Karl Horst buried. The tomb is in the box W -1.

The two sites of the former Berliner Knorr -Bremse AG are listed buildings, in a one " Knorr- Museum " was established.

Honors

Georg Knorr was

  • Honorary Senator of the Technical University of Braunschweig
  • Owner of the Prussian Red Eagle Order 4th class

After Georg Knorr numerous facilities and streets are named such as

  • The sports club Georg Knorr in Berlin and Frankfurt (Oder) with Judo, Jiu Jitsu, gymnastics, fitness, acting in the First Bundesliga
  • A business park in Berlin at the intersection Landsberger Allee / märkische Avenue,
  • The Knorrpromenade in Berlin- Friedrichshain, which was built in 1911 and after the death of Georg Knorr was named,
  • Georg Knorr -Straße in Berlin- Marzahn,
  • Georg Knorr Street in High Brunn near Munich.

Literature and sources

  • Erhard Born: Knorr, Georg. In: New German Biography ( NDB ). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1, pp. 220 f ( digitized ).
  • Alfred Gottwaldt: Safe - to a standstill. In: Railway Geschichte36 (2009 ), pp. 48-51.
  • Meyers Neues Lexikon, VEB Bibliographic Institute Leipzig, 1962
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