Franz Xaver Riepl

Who was Franz Xaver Riepl?

Franz Xaver Riepl was an important Austrian geologist, railway and metallurgical specialist.

Riepl was born in Graz, Austria. Between 1820 and 1835 he worked as a professor at the Vienna Technical University. It was from him that the initiative came to quarry the Styrian Ore Mountains using open cast mining. As early as 1828 Riepl had developed a plan for a railway link from Galicia via Vienna to Trieste and produced the detailed route diagrams. He also gave the impulse for building the important Witkowitz iron works which was important in the construction of the North railway. In 1836 he produced the first plan for a railway network across the whole of Austria.

In 1904 the street of Rieplstrasse in Vienna's Favoriten district was named after him.

He died in Vienna, Austria, on 25 April 1847.