Krauss, Georg

SUBJECT AREA: Land transport, Railways and locomotives

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b. 25 December 1826 Augsburg, Germany

d. 5 November 1906 Munich, Germany

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German locomotive engineer, founder of the locomotive builders Krauss \& Co.

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Krauss entered the Maffei locomotive works, Munich, as a fitter and subsequently worked successively for the Bavarian State Railways and the Swiss North Eastern Railway, which he left in 1866 to found Locomotivfabrik Krauss in Munich. The firm became one of the most important locomotive builders in Germany. A second factory was established in Munich in 1872 and a third at Linz, Austria, in 1880: by the time of Krauss's death, these factories had built more than 5,500 locomotives. The second Munich factory was predominantly for small locomotives, and to increase the sales of these Krauss promoted the construction of many local railways in south Germany and Austria. The firm survived to amalgamate with Maffei and take the name Krauss-Maffei AG in 1940.

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Further Reading

J.Marshall, 1978, A Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles.

Biographical note, 1985–6, Transactions of the Newcomen Society 57:46.

PJGR