The engineer Eveline Gottzein, honorary professor at the Technical University of Munich and pioneer of the magnetic levitation train, has died at the age of 92.
In May 1971, the technically interested world looked to Ottobrunn: On a test track at Haidgraben, the prototype of the first magnetic levitation train from the Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) company proved the feasibility of a grandiose idea. The engineer Eveline Gottzein and her colleagues celebrated the successful public demonstration. Nothing seemed to stand in the way of implementing this cutting-edge technology at its development site. And yet there are still no trains of this type in Bavaria to this day, and Gottzein researched the technology for years, including as part of her doctoral thesis, the title of which was: “The magnetic wheel as an autonomous functional unit of modular support and guidance systems for magnetic railways”. Gottzein developed the basis for the Transrapid levitation system.