August Föppl

Who was August Föppl?

August Otto Föppl was a professor of Technical Mechanics and Graphical Statics at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. He is credited with introducing the Föppl–Klammer theory and the Föppl–von Kármán equations.

His doctoral advisor was Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann and one of Föppl's first doctoral students was Ludwig Prandtl, his future son-in-law.

In 1894, Föppl wrote a widely read introductory book on Maxwell's theory of electricity, titled "Theorie der Elektriztät". Gerald Holton argues, that some arguments of Föppl concerning electromagnetic induction, had some influence on Albert Einstein's first paper on special relativity.