Respekt für Negrelli

The Spanish bread roll at Katzensee. (dampfbahn-katzensee.ch) I feel cold when I read the résumé of Alois Negrelli (Knight Negrelli of Moldelbe). What a track record! Incredible and almost unbeatable! I am ashamed that I didn’t know him until five years ago, although the traces of his outstanding works and the places where he worked have shaped my life from childhood. Two experiences should bear witness to my ignorance:

• My first unconscious contact with Alois Negrelli was in the 1960s. We often visited the Spanish-Brötli-Bahn at Katzensee near Regensdorf. The budget wasn’t always enough for a trip on the model train, but my eyes only shone when the steaming vehicle passed me. The Spanish-Brötli-Bahn was pure emotion for us children, but I didn’t know who was the brain behind this legend of railroad history.

• Due to family reasons, I put down roots in the Dolomites. For almost 40 years I have been spending my holidays several times a year in the Belluno and Trentino Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lo and behold, while researching important personalities from the region, I came across super-engineer Alois Negrelli, who had been unknown to me for a long time. He was born here. How could this outstanding engineer pass my previous life unknown and unconsciously? How did I manage to walk past his birthplace (Fiera di Primiero) and one of his educational institutions in the city of Feltre (Belluno) umpteen times without noticing him! Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s him, maybe it’s us that we have the services and the engineers who have provided them,

The short but effective life of the engineer Alois Negrelli

At the present time, one professional life would not be enough for Alois Negrelli’s achievements. One should also consider that the means of transport and traffic routes of that time, at the beginning of the 18th century, were not up to date. At the age of 20, Negrelli already managed to leave his mark from Lake Garda to Lake Constance as an engineer at the Innsbrucker construction department. Unfortunately, he was only 59 years old and built formative buildings in Switzerland, Europe and Egypt (Suez Canal) that are still in operation today. Alois Negrelli is a super engineer in my opinion. He mastered all engineering disciplines, besides planning roads, bridges and railway lines, he also planned and built churches. Which engineer can show such versatility today?

From Trentino to St. Gallen and Zurich and now and then in Egypt. Died in Vienna.

Before and after his time in Switzerland, Negrelli worked for the Austrian and Italian states as a pioneer of modern transport infrastructure. From a Swiss point of view, his employment with the canton of St. Gallen (as hydraulic engineering and road inspector), with the city of Zurich (as chief engineer) and with today’s SBB (then SNB) as technical manager for construction are worth mentioning the Spanish bread train from Zurich to Baden. Alois Negrelli was personally commissioned by the Zurich Chamber of Commerce to implement this project. He spent his last days in Vienna, where his grave is still today.

Is the award enough with a jetty? Shouldn’t it be anymore?

A super engineer who has hardly been noticed until now? What went wrong there? At least, after years of back and forth in Switzerland, the well-deserved monument in the form of a footbridge over the tracks in front of Zurich main station has now finally been dedicated to him. Many thanks to the City of Zurich and SBB. In Austria he was knighted by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1850; shouldn’t the cities of Zurich and St. Gallen make our super engineer Negrelli an honorary citizen thanks to his services to Switzerland? What is not there could still be. Obviously, I’m not the only one who was late in realizing Negrelli’s accomplishments! My previous ignorance about the super engineer Alois Negrelli led me to ask those involved in the «Negrellisteg» project, with which they associate his name (without prior research). And the result is hardly surprising!

Question: How exactly do you know / did you know the career of Alois Negrelli?

• Five out of eight construction workers did not know him at all before the start of the project. Additional answers were:

• I didn’t know the name before, not even in connection with the construction of the Spanish-Bread Roll Railway, and certainly not in connection with the construction of the Suez Canal.
• Before the project I knew practically nothing. I only became aware of his exciting career when I dealt with his biography for project presentations.

• I knew that he was a civil engineer and that he planned and implemented several buildings in Switzerland, including the Münsterbrücke in Zurich.

• Very superficial, simply because of the importance of its services for infrastructure construction all over the world, especially for Switzerland (Zurich). In the course of his studies regarding different bridge constructions and in connection with the Suez Canal (if I remember correctly, he designed the first line – not sure).

• I know the name Alois Negrelli. I know, for example, that Negrelli was an Austrian engineer who also helped develop important infrastructure projects in Switzerland. Spontaneously I think of the Spanish-Brötli-Bahn and the Münsterbrücke

Do good and talk about it!

The survey and my own perception clearly showed that it is necessary and desirable to appreciate the achievements of engineers more and that one wants to learn more about the personalities.

What do you want the project team to know about Alois Negrelli and about the engineers in general?

• Gianfranco Bronzini, dipl. Civil engineer FH / SIA, overall project manager of the «Negrelli» working group: I am impressed by the breadth and quality of his work and would like to find out more about him. I fi nd that Alois Negrelli’s broad work as a civil engineer is exemplary for the attitude to be striven for in training and in the daily professional practice of a civil engineer. The common man should find out what a civil engineer does and how important his work is. The civil engineer should learn from Alois Negrelli that our job is more than just calculating and building and that the civil engineer can and must make a significant contribution to building culture.

• Simone Rangosch, Dr. phil., traffic planner, director of civil engineering at the city of Zurich: With his work, Alois Negrelli campaigned for connections, be it between the cities of Zurich and Baden or between two river banks or even seas. The Negrellisteg is also about an important, long-awaited connection. We at the civil engineering department of the city of Zurich are responsible for the planning, design and maintenance of public space as well as future-oriented mobility and traffic planning. We would not be able to cope with these tasks without our engineers. It is important that the general public is aware that engineers provide important services. In order to draw attention to this, the civil engineering department will again take part in the “Engineers‘ Day” as an active partner next year.

• Benedikt Ronner, spatial planning draftsman, dipl. Settlement planner HTL, dipl. Architect HTL / SIA / SWB, overall project manager at SBB Immobilien, including for the Negrellisteg: When engineers approach the limits of what is feasible, they can achieve works that fascinate us humans and make us think.

• Daniel Wyss, graduate civil engineer ETH, project manager civil engineering of the city of Zurich: I was amazed at his versatility and at the important role that Negrelli played in Switzerland, especially for railway construction. I think it can easily be forgotten what contribution civil engineers, together with the other construction partners, made then – and now – to progress and prosperity in Switzerland – and still do. Especially the infrastructure construction in general and especially the railway construction in the 19th century, in which Alois Negrelli was significantly involved according to my research, contributed a lot to the economic upswing and thus to the improvement of prosperity.

• Alexander Muhm, Head of Real Estate SBB and member of the Group Management: Alois Negrelli was a great thinker and visionary who achieved a great deal for the reputation of engineering.

• Katrin Schubiger, Dipl. Arch. ETH, BSA ETH, architect in the ARGE Negrelli: Engineers play a significant role in the design of our environment. With the increasing density of our cities and landscape, civil engineering works are increasingly intervening in settlement and landscape areas. The engineers therefore have a responsibility that they as specialists as well as laypeople should be aware of. The importance of this work should be emphasized more. In my opinion, too little attention is paid to the design of the environment in engineering training.

• Mathieu Paratte, MSc ETH civil engineer / SIA, TPL bridge construction, technical site management, Deputy GPL in the ARGE Negrelli: The exciting story of Alois Negrelli reads almost like a novel (from the projects in Zurich to Vienna to the Suez Canal) . It shows how incredibly diverse the engineering profession is.

Alois Negrelli’s biography would fill an entire book. My brief remarks about him should make you want more. I recommend you look up his career on Wikipedia and visit his buildings and places of activity. With this in mind, I hope that the next time you step on a building designed by Alois Negrelli or another engineering personality, you will have a cold run. Not because you have to fear that the building will collapse, but out of respect for the achievements of the engineers who work for our prosperity every day! ■