Helmut Kirchberg (31 January 1906 – 23 May 1983) was a German mining scientist. In 1953 he was appointed

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the

Freiberg University of Mining and Technology The Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg (abbreviation: TU Bergakademie Freiberg, TUBAF) is a public university of technology with currently 3655 students in the city of Freiberg, Saxony, Germany. Its focus is on exploration, mining & ...

Life

Kirchberg was born in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

in the first decade of the twentieth century. His father was a

School A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compuls ...

. In 1915 the young Kirchberg entered the Gymnasium Zum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, a secondary school with a Christian and academic focus in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

. He passed his School Final Exams in 1924. He went on to study mining at

Freiberg Freiberg is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany. It is a so-called ''Große Kreisstadt'' (large county town) and the administrative centre of Mittelsachsen district. Its historic town centre has been placed under heritage c ...

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, emerging in 1929 with an engineering degree. He stayed on at the

Technical University of Berlin The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...

where he held a succession of junior academic post, and from where he received his doctorate in 1937 for work on "The processing of minerals according to their Thermal Properties" Between 1938 and 1943 he worked as a senior scientific research assistant at the Kaiser William Institute for Iron Research (as it was known at the time) in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

. At the end of this period, in March 1943 he obtained his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

from the Aachen Technical Academy with a dissertation entitled "Steel frame Building Construction and its Impact on Adding Value" After this, starting in 1943, he worked as a Professor of Mining at the Breslau Technical Academy.

War War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

had resumed in September 1939 following a

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Non-aggression pact A non-aggression pact or neutrality pact is a treaty between two or more states/countries that includes a promise by the signatories not to engage in military action against each other. Such treaties may be described by other names, such as a tr ...

that opened the way for a repeat partition of Poland between the two dictatorships. War ended in May 1945. By then Breslau had been besieged by the

Red army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

for three months, before being surrendered on 6 May 1945. By that time in Breslau, along with the surrounding Silesian territories, a programme of wholesale

ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...

was underway. At end of 1946 Breslau had become Wrocław and the ethnic German population had been replaced by an ethnic Polish population, many of those involved having themselves been expelled from territories in the east of Poland annexed by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Helmut Kirchberg was expelled to the west, ending up in the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...

of what had previously been Germany. By 1946 he was working as an interpreter in the

Central Administration Central administration is the leading or presiding body or group of people, and the highest administrative department which oversees all lower departments of an organization. Education In most cases, a school or school district will have a leadi ...

for the

Fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...

s industry.

Published output
''not a complete list''

* ''Die Aufbereitung von Mineralien auf Grund ihrer Wärmeeigenschaften'', TH Berlin, Diss., (1937) * ''Zur begrifflichen und formelmäßigen Erfassung von Siebvorgängen'' (1952) * ''Aufbereitung bergbaulicher Rohstoffe'' (vol. 1, 1953) * ''Die Flotation nichtsulfidischer Minerale mit Tallölprodukten als Sammler'' (1963) * ''Beiträge zur Flotation und Dichtesortierung'' (1968) * ''Probleme der Zinnsteinflotation und der Zinnbestimmung'' (1969)

Between 1947 and 1954 he held a teaching professorship at the Freiberg Mining Academy, becoming

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

of the Faculty of

Mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

and

Metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

in 1948. In 1953 he was appointed

of the Mining Academy, in succession to Friedrich Leutwein. He held the post till 1955. In the meantime, formally in October 1949, the

was replaced by the Soviet sponsored

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, of which Kirchberg was now a citizen. While rector, he was instrumental in the creation of the Academy's "Research Institute for Preparation" (''"Forschungsinstituts für Aufbereitung"''), which many regarded as his crowning achievement and which he himself headed up for almost eighteen years until his retirement in 1971. In 1957 Kirchberg became a full member of the (East) German Academy of Sciences, having been made a corresponding member the previous year. He was honoured in 1959 with the

Patriotic Order of Merit The Patriotic Order of Merit (German: ''Vaterländischer Verdienstorden'', or VVO) was a national award granted annually in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was founded in 1954 and was awarded to individuals and institutions for outstanding ...

in silver,Vaterländischer Verdienstorden in Silber. In: Bergakademie. 11/1959/12, p.723 and in 1969 received the

Banner of Labor The Banner of Labor () was an order issued in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was given for "excellent and long-standing service in strengthening and consolidating the GDR, especially for achieving outstanding results for the national e ...

. Kirchberg died in Freiberg in May 1983.

References

Mining engineers Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit Recipients of the Banner of Labor East German scientists Academic staff of the University of Freiburg Heads of universities in Germany 1906 births 1983 deaths Scientists from Mainz Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirchberg, Helmut