engineering

Georg Rickhey

Georg Rickhey is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Georg Rickhey rather than just read about it. In short: Georg Johannes Rickhey (25 August 1898, Hildesheim – 21 November 1970, Essen) was a German engineer and the general director of Mittelwerk GmbH in Dora-Mittelbau. Rickhey, a doctor of engineering, joined the Nazi Party in October 1931 as member number 664,050.

Key takeaways

Georg Rickhey belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Georg Rickhey to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Georg Rickhey from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Georg Johannes Rickhey (25 August 1898, Hildesheim – 21 November 1970, Essen) was a German engineer and the general director of Mittelwerk GmbH in Dora-Mittelbau. Rickhey, a doctor of engineering, joined the Nazi Party in October 1931 as member number 664,050. From 1940, he guided Gauamt Technik in Essen and was promoted in 1942 to the leader of NSDAP Gau Essen and was also at the same time authorized officer in an Essen mining company. During the Second World War he held a number of positions with the Reichsministerium für Bewaffnung und Munition (Reich Ministry for Armament and Munitions) before becoming manager of Demag, a tank production company, in 1942. He became head of Mittelwerk GmbH in Dora-Mittelbau from April 1944, overseeing production of the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket. His work on these weapons saw him awarded the Knights Cross of the War Merit Cross along with Walter Dornberger and Wernher von Braun. Arrested in 1945, he was taken by the U.S. Army to live at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio where he worked under the terms of Operation Paperclip. While at Wright Field Rickhey helped establish a smuggling operation, based on knowledge of black markets that he had gained in Nazi Germany. He was subsequently indicted as part of the Dachau Trials of 1947 under accusations that he had worked closely with the SS and Gestapo and witnessed executions. According to fellow scientists in Paperclip, Rickhey had bragged about killing slave laborers at Mittelwerk. In one instance, Rickhey was accused of helping hang 12 prisoners from a crane, after the laborers were accused of sabotaging rocket production. American Air Force colonel Donald L. Putt was aware of the allegations against Rickhey but sought to suppress them, since they were potentially damaging to Rickhey's ongoing research in the United States and to Operation Paperclip. At trial, Rickhey was acquitted due to a lack of evidence. Rickhey returned to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base after the trial ended. He did not return to his work in Operation Paperclip. Rickey built Hitler's underground bunker in Berlin and drew up the initial plans for "Site R" -- the Alternate National Military Command Center at the Raven Rock Mountain Complex in Maryland.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Georg Rickhey

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Georg Rickhey claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Georg Rickhey before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Georg Rickhey ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Georg Rickhey

In research: Georg Rickhey appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Georg Rickhey in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Georg Rickhey is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1898 births, 1970 deaths, Engineers from Lower Saxony, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Georg Rickhey outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Georg Rickhey in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Georg Rickhey means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Georg Rickhey out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Georg Rickhey in simple terms?

Why does Georg Rickhey matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Georg Rickhey?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Georg Rickhey.