Oskar von Miller
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Oskar von Miller (7 May 1855 – 9 April 1934) was a German engineer and founder of the Deutsches Museum, a large museum of technology and science.
Born in Munich, into an Upper Bavarian family from Aichach and was the son of the first supervisor of the royal ore foundry Ferdinand von Miller (1813-1887) in Munich and Anna Pösl (1815-1890).
Miller married the painter Marie Seitz in 1884 , who with he had seven children, two of which however died in infancy.
His brother was the ore caster and director of academy Ferdinand baron von Miller.
With the collection of his father Ferdinand into the Bavarian hereditary nobility on 12 October 1875 and with inscription into the aristocracy class in the Kingdom of Bavaria on 30 December 1875 also son Oskar was raised at the same time into the hereditary nobility.
Miller decided to study technology and building industry. Soon he discovered the recently developed electro-technology and turned to it. 1882 he organized the first electrotechnical exhibition in Germany, after he was fascinated by the first exhibition of this kind in Paris. On this exhibition he managed in companion with Marcel Deprez on September 16th 1882 the first transmission of electric current succeeded to its kind over a distance of approximately 60 kilometers from Miesbach to the Glaspalast in Munich.
In 1883 along with Emil Rathenau, he was a director of the German Edison society. He built the first power station in Germany in 1884 in Munich.
1890 it created its own engineer's office and became soon prominent in the area of the energy industry. He transferred electrotechnical exhibition in the year 1891 the line of the international ones to Frankfurt/Main. Again succeeded to it with the remote transmission of 20,000 V three-phase alternating current over the 176 kilometers long distance from Lauffen am Neckar to Frankfurt am Main a technical master achievement, which meant the break-through of alternating current transmission.
From 1918 to 1924 he was project manager with the building of the then largest storage power station of the world, the Walchenseekraftwerk.
Miller died 1934 in the German museum as a consequence of a heart accumulation, a few months after the accidental death of his wife.
Several posts which von Miller held emphasize his personality and the importance he had in electro-technology, - for example:
- Chairman of the association of German engineers
- Member of the peace delegation 1919 in Versailles as technical advisor
- publication of numerous books, which became for example within the range of the power supply from cities to standard works.
[edit] Honours
- Realm advisor to the crown of Bayern
- Honour citizen of the city Munich
- Honour citizen of Holzkirchen
- Honorary president of the 2nd conference of world force (Weltkraftkonferenz)
He fulfilled in 1903 his dream of a scientifically and technically aligned museum: the Deutsches museum.
Miller had recruited widespread contacts for many years for such a museum. With prince regent Luitpold he found a protector, who assured also a national support. Famous scientists and entrepreneur such as Max Planck, Hugo Junkers, William Conrad Roentgen and Emil Rathenau advised him on the structure of the departments. Nearly the entire building material was donated, owing to his commitment.
With Carl von Linde, he educated the first museum executive committee to the developer of the refrigeration technology and Walter von Dyck, the rector of the technical university.
In 1906 emperor Wilhelm II laid the foundation-stone of the museum complex in its current location on the museum island; up to the final re-opening, those only to Miller's 70th birthday on 7 May 1925 to take place knew, smaller exhibition parts in provisional areas had been accommodated.
