Heinz Brauer (* 1923)

Heinz Brauer was born in Oldenburg on 28 December 1923. After undergoing service in World War II and imprisonment afterwards, he studied mechanical engineering at the Technische Universität of Hanover from 1949 to 1954. From 1954 to 1959 he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Flow Research in Göttingen. He took a doctorate in engineering at the Technische Universität of Hanover in 1956 and became a professor of process engineering there in 1959. In 1960 he became director of heat engineering at the Mannesmann company in Duisburg.

In 1963 Brauer took up the professorship of process engineering at the Technische Universität Berlin. In this post he introduced to the syllabus polyphase (i.e. mixed solid, fluid and gaseous materials) currents and the exchange of materials with and without chemical reactions and he increasingly included the processes of heat transfer and biotechnology. Thus he created an extensive system of transfer processes including chemical and microbial conversion. At the heart of the research he carried out were the biological treatment of waste water and air pollution control.

As early as the 1960s, Brauer had introduced computer-supported exercises and in his "Innovationstechnik" ("technological innovation") laboratory presentations he tested basic scientific principles for any innovative possibilities they may offer. He became professor emeritus in 1992 and continues to teach at the TU Berlin. He has held the post of dean several times and has supervised 73 students in their doctoral work. The German Association of Engineers, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and private foundations have honoured Brauer's contributions to process engineering and environmental protection with various prizes and awards.

Since the 1970s up to 50% of the graduates who have worked with Brauer in the "Europa Studium" programme have achieved a double diploma thanks to the recognition of foreign examinations. Despite political problems for West Berliners who had contact with Eastern Bloc countries during the 1970s, Brauer was engaged in German-Polish cooperation. In 1975 he started to hold seminars with Polish colleagues on process engineering and chemical apparatus studies and on environmental protection in metropolitan areas both at the TU Berlin and at the Politechnika in Krakow, Poland. A joint course on environmental protection has been offered since 1992, to which practitioners from all over Poland come.

For all of this work, he was given an honorary doctorate from the University of Krakow in 1988, the golden medal (1995) and the golden medal of honour (2003) from the Politechnika of Krakow, and in 1998 he was admitted to the Polish golden order for environmental protection. Since 1985, Brauer has also maintained close contact and held joint seminars with the University of Miskolc in Hungary, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1991.

Brauer has written several books, including five textbooks, and made numerous contributions to other publications, and he has published more than 200 articles for specialist journals. He also edited volume V of the handbook on environmental protection and environmental technology. Since 1971 he has used scientific films in his film-lectures in order to demonstrate topics that are difficult to describe, such as gas dispersion and the movement of solids in mutilevel fluid beds. His social commitments have been reflected in his membership of several boards of directors and advisory committees. Brauer has worked as a visiting professor on several continents and last but not least was a co-founder of the Berlin law on higher education.

Lit.: Archives of the TU Berlin

[B. E.]