Oskar von Miller
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| Oskar von Miller | |
 Oskar von Miller
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| Born | 7 May 1855 Munich |
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| Died | 9 April 1934 Munich |
| Nationality | German |
| Known for | Deutsches Museum |
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, he was the son of the first supervisor of the royal ore foundry in Munich Ferdinand Von Miller (1813-1887) and Anna Pösl (1815-1890).
Miller married the painter Marie Seitz in 1884, with whom he had seven children, two of whom, however, died in infancy.
His brother was the ore caster and director of the academy Ferdinand Baron von Miller.
With the accession of his father Ferdinand into the Bavarian hereditary nobility on 12 October 1875 and with the inscription of the family name onto the roles of the aristocracy of the Kingdom of Bavaria on 30 December 1875, Oskar was likewise raised at the same time into the hereditary nobility.
Miller decided to study technology and the building industry. Soon he discovered the recently developed field of electrotechnology, and so turned to it. In 1882 he organized the first electrotechnical exhibition in Germany, after having been fascinated by the first exhibition of this kind in Paris. At this exhibition, on September 16, 1882, in partnership with Marcel Deprez, he succeeded in transmitting an electric current for the first time 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.
In 1890 he founded his own engineering office, which soon became prominent in the energy industry. He transferred electrotechnical exhibition in the year 1891 the line of the international ones to Frankfurt/Main. He succeeded in the remote transmission of 20,000 V three-phase alternating current over the 176 kilometer-long distance from Lauffen am Neckar to Frankfurt am Main, which was a technical master achievement and a significant breakthrough in the transmission of alternating current.
From 1918 to 1924 he was project manager in the building of the then-largest power storage station in the world, the Walchenseekraftwerk.
Miller died in 1934 in the German Museum in Munich as a consequence of a heart attack, 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 of 1919 in Versailles as technical advisor
- Author of numerous books, of which those concerned with the issue of supplying electrical power to and from cities became the standard works.
[edit] Honours
- Realm advisor to the crown of Bayern
Oskar von Miller.
- Honorary citizen of the city of Munich
- Honorary citizen of Holzkirchen
- Honorary president of the 2nd world conference on electrical power (Weltkraftkonferenz)
- Siemens-Ring
In 1903 he fulfilled his dream of founding a museum devoted to science and technology: the Deutsches museum.
Miller had recruited widespread contacts for many years for such a museum. In Prince Regent Luitpold he found a patron who assured him also of national support. Famous scientists and entrepreneurs such as Max Planck, Hugo Junkers, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen and Emil Rathenau advised him on the structure of the departments. Nearly all the material needed for the construction of the building 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 cornerstone 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.
[edit] Notes
Regarding personal names: in German, von is a preposition which approximately means of or from and usually denotes some sort of nobility. It is part of the family name or territorial designation, not a first or middle name.
