SCHMIDT M

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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29.7.1928 Berlin/D - 2.2.2003 Hildesheim/D

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Martin Schmidt graduated as a civil engineer from the Technical University of Berlin in 1952 and stayed there for another five years to submit a PhD thesis on side weirs. From 1957 to 1962, he directed the works of a dam in Southwest Africa and then was appointed chief engineer of Harzwasserwerke, of which he took over as the director in 1969 and where he stayed until retirement in 1994. Schmidt was awarded in 1993 the Frontinus Medal of the German Frontinus Gesellschaft for his outstanding contributions to the history of technology.

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Schmidt's research on side weirs counts among the earliest with a computational approach. He investigated the main flow features for both suband supercritical flow conditions. He concluded his learning years with the popular 1957 book Gerinnehydraulik which had a fresh appearance to the German literature and included also recent findings of the Anglo-Saxon and the Eastern Europe regions. Once having left for Southern Africa, Schmidt developed into a dam specialist. Back in Germany with the water supply works of the Harz region, he designed and executed the Innerste Dam with 20 millions of m3 water volume and the Grane Dam of a double volume. During this time he wrote noteworthy papers on the morning glory intake, a tulipshaped vertical shaft used as a flood water release structure that was developed in the early 1950s mainly in the USA. Once the Grane Dam was inaugurated together with pipelines 100 km long, the water supply shortage of the Niedersachsen County was removed. After retirement Schmidt contributed noteworthy papers to the history of technology and to the risk of floods along the large German rivers.

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_{Anonymous (1994). Martin Schmidt im Ruhestand. Wasserwirtschaft 84(6): 306. P}

_{Giesecke, J. (2003). Martin Schmidt plötzlich verstorben. Wasserwirtschaft 93(5): 7.}

_{Gläser, F. (1993). Laudatio zur Verleihung der Frontinus-Medaille and Herrn Dr.-Ing. Martin Schmidt. Frontinus-Gesellschaft 17: 15-17.}

_{Heise, K. (2006). Martin Friedrich Schmidt. Standesamt: Hildesheim.}

_{Schmidt, M. (1955). Die Berechnung von Streichwehren. Wasserwirtschaft 45: 96-100. Schmidt, M. (1957). Gerinnehydraulik. VEB-Verlag: Berlin, Bauverlag GmbH: Wiesbaden. Schmidt, M. (1963). Die Wasserwirtschaft Südwestafrikas. Wasserwirtschaft 53(6): 225-232. Schmidt, M. (1969). Überlauftürme als Hochwasserentlastungsanlagen. Wasserwirtschaft 59(1): 8-12.}

_{Schmidt, M. (2003). Die grosse Elbeflut im Sommer 2002 aus historischer und künftiger Sicht. Wasserwirtschaft 93(1/2): 24-28.}