Hans Scherenberg (born

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

28 October 1910, died Stuttgart 17 November 2000) was a German automobile engineer and executive. After studying engineering at the Technical Universities of Stuttgart and

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

, between 1930 and 1935, Scherenberg joined Daimler Benz AG as a research engineer. Here he worked on the development of the first petrol injected aircraft engine ( The DB 601) which went into production in 1937. In 1942 he received his doctoral thesis from

Stuttgart University The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with ...

for a work on "Valve control systems for four-stroke flight engines." Following the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

the victorious war-time allies had enforced Daimler Benz AG a pause in engine fuel-injection development. Scherenberg moved to work with Adolf Schnürle's engineering consultancy, moving again in 1948 to join the

Gutbrod Gutbrod was a German manufacturer of cars, motorcycles and small agricultural machinery. The firm was founded in Ludwigsburg, Germany by :de:Wilhelm Gutbrod, Wilhelm Gutbrod in 1926. It originally built "Standard" branded motorcycles. In 1933 ...

company which had recently been taken on by Walter Gutbrod on the death of the founder Wilhelm Gutbrod. Under Scherenberg's leadership Gutbrod developed and brought to market the world's first production automobile fitted with a petrol injected engine. He returned to Daimler Benz AG in 1952. Following a promotion to the board of management in 1956, he was principally involved in the development of Daimler-Benz

automatic transmission An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving ...

and fuel injection systems, which would remain areas of key strength for the company in later decades. After the retirement at the end of 1965 of Fritz Nallinger, Scherenberg took on overall responsibility for the company's Research and Development functions until his own retirement in 1977. He was succeeded by Werner Breitschwerdt. In 1970 Scherenberg received an

Honorary Doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from Technical University of Berlin and in 1974 an Honorary Professorship from

. In 1981 he was awarded a

Werner von Siemens Ring The Werner von Siemens Ring (in German orthography, Werner-von-Siemens-Ring) is one of the highest awards for technical sciences in Germany. It has been awarded from 1916 to 1941 and since 1952 about every three years by the foundation ''Stiftung ...

(a high-ranking award for technical sciences in Germany).

Awards

Wilhelm Exner Medal The Wilhelm Exner Medal has been awarded by the Austrian Industry Association, (ÖGV), for excellence in research and science since 1921. The medal is dedicated to Wilhelm Exner (1840–1931), former president of the Association, who initialize ...

in 1977.Editor, ÖGV. (2015). Wilhelm Exner Medal. Austrian Trade Association. ÖGV. Austria.

Sources and further reading

* Kind, Dieter ; Mühe, Walter: ''Naturforscher und Gestalter der Technik. Die Träger des Werner-von-Siemens-Ringes und ihre Leistungen für Naturwissenschaft und Technik.'' Düsseldorf: VDI-Verlag 1989. (Seite 174-180)

External links

* 1910 births 2000 deaths German automotive engineers Mercedes-Benz Group people DaimlerChrysler Engineers from Dresden Werner von Siemens Ring laureates Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany {{germany-business-bio-stub