Maurice Koechlin

Maurice Koechlin
Born	(1856-03-08)8 March 1856 Buhl,France
Died	14 January 1946(1946-01-14)(aged 89) Veytaux,Switzerland
Nationality	Swiss,French
Occupation	Engineer
Relatives	SeeKoechlin family
Engineering career
Projects	Garabit Viaduct Eiffel Tower
Awards	Officer of the Legion d'Honneur

Maurice Koechlin(3 June 1856 – 14 January 1946) was aFranco-Swissstructural engineerfrom theKoechlin family.

Life

See also:Koechlin family

Koechlin's first drawing for the Eiffel Tower

A member of the renowned AlsatianKoechlin family,he was born inBuhl, Haut-Rhin,the son of Jean Koechlin and his wife Anne Marie (Anaïs), née Beuck. He was the first cousin once removed ofAndré Koechlin,and the great-grandfather of actressKalki Koechlin.

When France lost theFranco-Prussian warto Prussia in 1871 the entire Koechlin family decided to become citizens of Switzerland and thus dropped French citizenship. After the defeat of theGerman Empirein 1918, however, the Koechlin family again applied for French citizenship.

Maurice attended the lycée inMulhouse,then between 1873 and 1877 studiedcivil engineeringat thePolytechnikum ZürichunderCarl Culmann.In 1876 he became a citizen of Zurich ( "Zürcher Bürger")Between 1877 and 1879 he worked for the French railway company "Chemin de Fer de l'Est".

Much of his work was done forGustave Eiffel's "Compagnie des établissements Eiffel", which Koechlin joined in 1879. In 1886 Maurice married Emma Rossier (1867-1965). They had six children: three sons and three daughters. Maurice and Emma were lifelong members of thePlymouth Brethren.

In 1887 he started work on his plans for the"Tour de 300 mètres"in Paris, along with his younger brother Henri Koechlin andcivil engineerÉmile Nouguier.Maurice Koechlin became the Managing Director of Eiffel's company when Eiffel retired from the engineering profession in 1893. The company was renamedSociété de construction de Levallois-Perret.

Maurice Koechlin died in 1946 inVeytaux,Switzerlandin a house built by himself in 1900.

Major designs

Major structural designs include:

• Garabit viaduct,(1880–1884);
• Armature for theStatue of Liberty(Liberty Enlightening the World) - in collaboration withFrédéric Auguste Bartholdi,(1884); and
• Eiffel Tower,(1887–1889).

Honours and legacy

• Officer of theLégion d'honneur.

Though named after a project of Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower – symbol of Paris – has its structural concept and form from the responsible chief engineer Maurice Koechlin. Koechlin was an engineer of outstanding ingenuity and well versed in the structural techniques of his time. He possessed therefore the best qualifications for evolving such technically innovative conceptions for which Eiffel and his firm were renowned.

— Trautz (2002)

Descendants

• Kalki Koechlin,an actress, through her father Joël, is a descendant of Maurice Koechlin
• Pedro Koechlin von Stein,a businessman in Peru (owner ofWayra PeruMaria Violeta Koechlin Venturo Lima Peru

Bibliography

• Koechlin, S. (2007a)."Maurice Koechlin".Site de la famile Koechlin(in French).Retrieved2007-08-13.
• Koechlin, S. (2007b)."Maurice Koechlin et la Tour Eiffel".Site de la famile Koechlin(in French).Retrieved2007-08-13.
• Picon, A. (1997).L'art de l'ingénieur.Paris: Éditions du Centre Georges Pompidou. p. 253.ISBN2-85850-911-5.
• Trautz, M. (2002)."Maurice Koechlin Der eigentliche Erfinder des Eiffelturms"(PDF).Deutsche Bauzeitung.136{4}: 105–111. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2014-05-08.(in German)
• Walbrach, K. F. (2006)."Ohne ihn gäbe es keinen Eiffelturm: Maurice Koechlin (1856-1946)".Bautechnik.83(4): 271–284.doi:10.1002/bate.200610025.S2CID109267234.(in German)
• Bergier, J.-F.; Fabre-Koechlin, M.; Dubas, P. (1990)."Dipl.Ing. Maurice Koechlin und der Eiffelturm"(PDF).Schriftenreihe der ETH-Bibliothek.27.(in German and French)

External links

• "Maurice Koechlin".Nicolas Janberg's Structurae.Retrieved2007-08-13.