Daring men

From one war to the next

Despite the restrictions the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 envisaged for Aeronautics in the Weimar Republic, Stuttgart College of Technology was able to create a profile for itself as a centre of scientific teaching. Yet students with an interest in the subject could only study Aeronautic Engineering as an optional course within a course in Mechanical Engineering.

Important developments took place in aeronautic engineering during the time shortly before and after the National Socialists took power. In 1929, after Baumann's death, his department was split in two, giving rise to the Stuttgart Aeronautic Engineering Institute (Flugtechnisches Institut Stuttgart, FIST) on the one hand, headed by Georg Madelung, who thus became Baumann's successor, and the Research Institute for Automotive Engineering and Vehicle Engines (Forschungsinstitut für Kraftfahrwesen und Fahrzeugmotoren, FKFS) on the other hand, founded in 1930. Wunibald Kamm was appointed head of the latter institute. This expansion of research activities led in turn to an expansion of teaching activities, which was also in the interests of the expanding military state. In the summer semester of 1936, the subject of Aeronautical Engineering was then offered for the first time. However, introductory courses still had to be taken in the Mechanical Engineering department.

During the war aeronautic research was extended within the German Reich as a whole after the failure of Germany's blitzkrieg strategy. In 1941 the Count Zeppelin Research Institute (Forschungsanstalt Graf Zeppelin, FGZ) was formed to support this aim. The head of this institute was also Georg Madelung.