User:ZaaraTE/Erasmus Kittler

Erasmus Kittler (born June 25, 1852 in Schwabach, died March 13, 1929 in Darmstadt) was a German electrical engineering pioneer and physicist. In 1882, the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt (TH Darmstadt) established the world's first chair for electrical engineering and in the same year appointed Kittler to this chair. In 1883, the university founded the first faculty of electrical engineering and Kittler established the first course of study for electrical engineering at TH Darmstadt and trained the electrical engineers urgently needed for the electrification of the state.

Life
Kittler was the son of a tailor and worked as a primary school teacher in Nuremberg between 1871 and 1874. He also prepared himself for his Abitur, which he passed in Nuremberg in 1875. In 1875/76 he studied mathematics and physics at the Technical University of Munich and then at the University of Würzburg. Here he passed the teacher's examination in mathematics and physics in 1879. During his studies he became a member of the Akademischer Gesangverein Würzburg im Sondershäuser Verband. From 1879 he was assistant to Wilhelm von Beetz at the Institute of Physics of TH Munich. In 1880 he received his doctorate from the University of Würzburg under Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Kohlrausch. 1881 followed the habilitation at TH Munich.

His curriculum included a four-year course of study in electrical engineering with a final examination. In addition to general electrical engineering, the first four semesters included the fundamentals of the engineering sciences: mathematics, physics, chemistry and mechanical engineering. In the fifth to eighth semesters, the students studied electrical engineering: metrology, electrical drives, power transmission, electrical railways, electrical lighting and, later, high-voltage engineering. In 1887 Kittler was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

As head of the construction of the "Central Station for Electric Lighting" in Darmstadt, he was significantly involved in the development of the public power supply. When it went into operation in 1888, the Darmstadt plant became the third city in the world, after New York and Berlin, to have a comprehensive power supply system. Kittler was also instrumental in the construction of major power stations in Bremen, Düsseldorf, Mainz, Budapest, Gdansk and Worms. One of his important projects was the management of the construction of the power station in Heppenheim, begun in 1899.

Among Kittler's most famous students were Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky, Carl Hering, Clarence Feldmann, Waldemar Petersen and Leo Pungs. Kittler also wrote one of the first German standard works on electrical engineering, the Handbuch der Elektrotechnik (Two volumes, Stuttgart 1886/1890).

Erasmus Kittler left the active service of the TH Darmstadt in 1915. On the occasion of his retirement, TU Darmstadt awarded him an honorary doctorate after many years of successful teaching in grateful appreciation of his services to the development of the university.

In 1899, he was appointed by Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig as a lifelong member of the first chamber of state estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, to which he belonged until the November Revolution of 1918.

Kittler died on 13 March 1929 in Darmstadt. Erasmus Kittler was buried at the Waldfriedhof Darmstadt (grave place: L 6a 15, tomb Erasmus Kittler).

Awards
Since 1977, the TU Darmstadt has awarded a medal named after Erasmus Kittler as an award. In Darmstadt, the Erasmus Kittler School was named after him.

The Erasmus Kittler Prize, named after him, is awarded every two years by the Entega Foundation.