Karl von Etzel (old spelling Carl von Etzel; 6 January 1812 – 2 May 1865) was a German railway engineer and architect. He created many famous railway lines, bridges and viaducts, including the

Bietigheim Enz Valley Viaduct The Bietigheim Viaduct is a well-known German railway bridge over the Enz valley at Bietigheim-Bissingen and one of the landmarks of the city. Construction began in 1851 and completion occurred on 20 September 1853 under the direction of Karl E ...

Life

Karl Etzel was the son of the Stuttgart city planner Gottlieb Christian Eberhard von Etzel, the builder of the Neuen Weinsteige, a picturesque road in southeastern

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

. Because his father had built houses in

Heilbronn Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. With over 126,000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. From the late Mid ...

for the Rauch and Mertz families in 1811–1812, it was commonly believed that he was born in Heilbronn, but his birth is registered in the parish register of Stuttgart. The young Etzel studied from 1831 to 1835 with

Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret (born Ludwigsburg, 2 June 1767; died Stuttgart, 17 January 1845) was a German architect and designer. Life and work From 1778 to 1788 he was educated at the Hohe Karlsschule in Stuttgart where he trained as a pa ...

. In 1835 Karl von Etzel worked on construction projects in France, including the Paris ( Saint-Lazare)– Saint-Germain railway with the bridge over the

Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributarie ...

at Asnières (destroyed during the

February Revolution of 1848 The French Revolution of 1848 (french: Révolution française de 1848), also known as the February Revolution (), was a brief period of civil unrest in France, in February 1848, that led to the collapse of the July Monarchy and the foundation ...

and later rebuilt). In 1837 he was the Chief Engineer for the construction of the Versailles Railway. In 1840, he went to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, where he oversaw several building projects. Together with

Ludwig Förster Ludwig Christian Friedrich (von) Förster (8 October 1797 in Ansbach – 16 June 1863 in Bad Gleichenberg, Styria) was a German-born Austrian architect. While he was not Jewish, he is known for building Jewish synagogues and churches. Ludwig F ...

, he rebuilt the first ''Dianabad'' with a steel hall, making it the first indoor bath house in continental Europe. In 1843, he was employed as a town planner in

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

, where he was responsible for the construction of the first railways in Württemberg, including the

Fils Valley Railway The Fils Valley Railway (german: Filstalbahn, historically ''Filsbahn'' or ''Württembergische Ostbahn''—Württemberg Eastern Railway) designates the Württemberg line from Stuttgart via Göppingen to Ulm. It runs from Plochingen to Geisling ...

over the

Geislinger Steige The Geislinger Steige ("Geislingen climb") is an old trade route over the low mountain range of the Swabian Jura in southern Germany. It links Geislingen an der Steige with Amstetten and is one of the most famous ascents in the Jura. The name "Gei ...

—the first railway crossing of a mountain range in Europe. He built the first

Stuttgart Central Station Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof (; en, Stuttgart central station) is the primary railway station in the city of Stuttgart, the state capital of Baden-Württemberg, in southwestern Germany. It is the largest regional and long-distance railway station in ...

, opened on 26 September 1846. In 1853, Etzel joined the Swiss Central Railway as a construction manager and he oversaw the construction of the Hauenstein line, starting with the original Hauenstein tunnel. He then created his most famous and greatest work in Austria, the Brenner Railway (1864–1867), although he did not live to see its completion. Etzel suffered a stroke on 13 November 1864 and therefore requested retirement. He died on 2 May 1865 in Kemmelbach between Vienna and

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...

of a second stroke during a train ride on a special train to Stuttgart-Cannstatt, where he wanted to retire to live in the Villa Etzel, which had been built and furnished to his designs. During his life Etzel was in charge of the construction of more than 1,500 kilometres of railways. He had also written several literary works since 1844. He edited a few articles for the ''Stuttgarter Eisenbahn-Zeitung'' (Stuttgart railway newspaper). His published instructions were written with an unsurpassed brevity.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Etzel, Karl German civil engineers 1812 births 1865 deaths 19th-century German architects Engineers from Stuttgart