Franz Kruckenberg

Who was Franz Kruckenberg?

Franz Friedrich Kruckenberg was an engineer and pioneer of high speed railway systems. He designed several high speed trains. His most famous train was the Schienenzeppelin.

Kruckenberg was born into an ancient Hamburg merchant family. He studied from 1904 to 1907 mechanical engineering at the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg in Berlin gaining his Diplom in naval engineering. Before World War I he constructed combat aircraft and airships. Already at that time he criticized airships because of their explosive hydrogen filling and the civil use of aircraft because of the high fuel and maintenance costs.