Franz Dischinger (8 October 1887 - 9 January 1953) was a pioneering German

civil Civil may refer to: *Civility, orderly behavior and politeness *Civic virtue, the cultivation of habits important for the success of a society *Civil (journalism) ''The Colorado Sun'' is an online news outlet based in Denver, Colorado. It lau ...

and

structural engineer Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research List of structural elements, structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants. Their work takes account mainly of ...

, responsible for the development of the modern

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...

. He was also a pioneer of the use of

prestressed concrete Prestressed concrete is a form of concrete used in construction. It is substantially prestressed (Compression (physics), compressed) during production, in a manner that strengthens it against tensile forces which will exist when in service. Post-t ...

, patenting the technique of external prestressing (where the prestressing bars or tendons are not encased in the concrete) in 1934. After completing Gymnasium in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

, Germany, Dischinger went to the ''Technische Hoschschule Karlsruhe'' (now

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Karlsruhe (), founde ...

) where he studied and received a degree in building engineering. After getting his degree in 1913, he then started working for Dyckerhoff & Widmann A.G., an engineering firm in Germany. In 1928 Dischinger went back to school to receive his doctorate at the ''Technische Hoschschule Dresden'' (now

TU Dresden TU Dresden (for , abbreviated as TUD), also as the Dresden University of Technology, is a public research university in Dresden, Germany. It is the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony a ...

), Germany. In 1922, he designed the Zeiss

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Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

with

Walther Bauersfeld Walther Bauersfeld (23 January 1879 – 28 October 1959) was a German engineer. Life He was employed by the Carl Zeiss Jena, who, on a suggestion by the German astronomer Max Wolf, started work on the first projection planetarium in 1912. Th ...

, using a thin-shell concrete roof in the shape of a

hemisphere Hemisphere may refer to: In geometry * Hemisphere (geometry), a half of a sphere As half of Earth or any spherical astronomical object * A hemisphere of Earth ** Northern Hemisphere ** Southern Hemisphere ** Eastern Hemisphere ** Western Hemi ...

. Their system was subsequently patented, and Dischinger published a paper on the relevant mathematics in 1928. Since the previous stay and cable bridges in Dischinger's opinion were both flawed technically and disturbing looking, he decided to publish his own cable stayed bridge. This design has been used ever since, more than 100 of these cable stayed bridges have been built. For the 1938 design of a rail

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

(not built), he had studied historical bridges incorporating inclined stay elements, such as those by Ferdinand Arnodin and

John Roebling John Augustus Roebling (born Johann August Röbling; June 12, 1806 – July 22, 1869) was a German-born American civil engineer. He designed and built wire rope suspension bridges, in particular the Brooklyn Bridge, which has been designated as ...

. He went on to design the 183 m span Strömsund Bridge in

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, completed in 1955 and generally considered the first of the modern tradition of cable-stayed bridges, although there had been many isolated examples of the bridge form before then. This employed a

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

deck and cables, with large spacings between the stays typical of the early designs. It appears in Strömsund's coat of arms.Troyano, op. cit. Other key works include: * Großmarkthalle,

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, Switzerland, 1929 (dome roof) * Market Hall,

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, Germany, 1930 (polygonal dome roofs) *

Koblenz Koblenz ( , , ; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz'') is a German city on the banks of the Rhine (Middle Rhine) and the Moselle, a multinational tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman military p ...

bridge, Germany, 1935 (three arch concrete bridge) * Aue bridge, Germany, 1936 * Cologne Rodenkirchen Bridge, Cologne, Germany, 1954 (with others, including Fritz Leonhardt)

Notes

External links

* *
Cable-Stayed Bridges
from ASCE journal library {{DEFAULTSORT:Dischinger, Franz Bridge engineers Structural engineers German civil engineers 1887 births 1953 deaths Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin Academic staff of Technische Universität Berlin 20th-century German engineers Engineers from Karlsruhe Engineers from the German Empire