PE&RS August 2000

ASPRS 2000 Yearbook

Memorial Address

HEINZ ERNST REINHARD GRUNER1897-1993

By Bob McGivern

Even as a boy, Heinz showed great curiosity and enthusiasm for technical advances and problem solving. It was this fascination that propelled him into research and development of photogrammetric products for some of the firms that pioneered the industry.

Heinz Ernst Reinhard Gruner was born on November 28, 1897 in Berlin, Germany and died in Rochester, New York on November 2, 1993 at the age of 95. Heinz was the son of Richard Ehregott Gruner and Clara Froehlick. He had two younger sisters, Hildegard and Elfride. His father was chief lithographer in Bautzen, Germany and painted many homeland scenes which Heinz proudly displayed. Richard Gruner died in 1945, a few months before World War II ended in Europe, at the age of 78. His wife, Clara, died in Bautzen in 1937 at the age of 72.

Heinz completed four years of grammar school and two years of Latin High School in Bautzen. Then, because of his leaning toward a technical occupation, he attended the Science High School in Bautzen.

When he was 16, Heinz was found eligible for military service and assigned to a pioneer (engineering) battalion. By the end of his sixteenth year, he received “trial by fire” in the fields of Flanders. Until the end of the war, Heinz served almost without interruption at the front lines, with various engineering groups, on both the western and eastern fronts. Heinz progressed up through the ranks to Lieutenant and received several decorations including the Iron Cross 2nd Class, Iron Cross 1st Class, and Honorary Cross for front line combat. He was discharged in January of 1919, having never been seriously ill or wounded in over five years of service.

Upon returning home, he completed the requirements for graduation from high school and entered the Technical Institute in Dresden in the fall of 1919. He pursued a curriculum of survey engineering and received a diploma with honors in the spring of 1923. During this time, he attended lectures by Professor Hugershoff on the topic of photogrammetry, participated in practice sessions, and worked part-time in the photogrammetry section of the firm of Gustav Heyde in Dresden.

Due to the post war depression in Germany; it was not possible to obtain a position as a survey engineer. After graduation, Heinz returned to Bautzen for two years and worked as a surveying assistant, substitute teacher at the Technical Trade School, designer for a machine manufacturer, apprentice in a tool and machine shop, and finally in the research and calculation department of the tool and machine shop. This practical experience during the job search, which was first deemed as useless, soon began to be appreciated and viewed as helpful upon returning to academic activities.

Heinz became the assistant to Professor Hugershoff at the Geodetic Institute of the College of Forestry in Tharandt (outside Dresden), in the summer of 1925. The following year, on June 10, 1926, Heinz married Doris Martha Kretschmar, daughter of Carl Christian Kretschmar and Anna (Foerster) Kretschmar, in a lovely country church in Cunewalde, Germany.

At the Geodetic Institute, Heinz participated in development work based on the research ideas of Professor Hugershoff. This led to the invention of a series of new photogrammetric recording and evaluation instruments. The introduction of the Hugershoff instruments into the surveying practice required Heinz to lecture and make many training and installation trips in Europe. In 1927, he made his first trip to the United States with Professor Hugershoff to introduce the Hugershoff photogrammetric methods to the U.S. Federal Mapping Agencies.

In 1928, Heinz and Doris’ first child, Ursula, was born in Dresden. The Aerotopograph Corporation of America was founded in Washington, DC one year later, with Col. Claude H. Birdseye as president. Heinz was asked to organize the stereo-mapping department, as well as to select and train operators. The firm was equipped with the Hugershoff Aerocartograph Plotting Instruments. For the next two years Heinz was an Aerocartograph operator, aerial photographer, substitute pilot and navigator, surveyor, computer operator, lecturer, and trouble-shooter. In 1930, he went to Arizona to perform ground surveys of a dam site in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River for the location of the Hoover Dam. It was a terrestrial photogrammetric survey using the Hugershoff Universal Photo Theodolite. Heinz considered this venture, with its several lucky escapes from disaster, a major highlight of his life.

In 1931, Doris and Heinz’s son, Walter, was born in Washington, DC. The same year, the Colorado River Project was completed and Heinz returned to Germany. He was employed for a brief period at the Zeiss Works in Jena.

Heinz was invited back to the U.S. in 1932 where the U.S. military was considering the use of aerial photogrammetry for military mapping. He was offered a position with the U.S. Corps of Engineers as civilian head of a research detachment established at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. In the fall of 1932, he immigrated to the U.S. with the family. During the next five years, his group was involved in research into extension of control from multi-lens photography, redesigning and testing stereo-mapping equipment, and developing new equipment for camera calibration. He participated in aerial reconnaissance missions and high altitude flights to explore aerial equipment under severe environmental conditions. In November 1935, he assisted in the preparations for the second stratospheric flight by Army Capt. Stevens. This epic event successfully extended the state of the art in aerial photogrammetry technology.

In the spring of 1934, Heinz made a lecture tour, which included the U.S. Geological Survey in Washington, DC; American Geographical Society in New York City; Syracuse University (Prof. Earl Church), Syracuse, New York; and the Department of Air Defense in Ottawa, Canada to demonstrate the Zeiss Multiplex Mapping Instrument. The U.S. Army tested and adopted the Zeiss Multiplex for military mapping units in 1934.

In July of 1934, Heinz Gruner was one of 12 persons interested in photogrammetry who met in Washington, DC and founded The American Society of Photogrammetry. Heinz served as a member of the Board of Directors until 1936.

In the summer of 1935, Heinz made a study trip to Germany to evaluate developments in photogrammetric instruments and mapping techniques. Of particular interest to Heinz were designs suitable for U.S. manufacture. Heinz returned to the U.S. and Wright Patterson, but in the spring of 1936, made the decision to return to Germany. Prior to returning to Germany, Heinz made an 8000-mile, two-month lecture tour, by car, across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico with the Zeiss Multiplex. He lectured at many state and city engineering departments, universities, at the U.S. Forest Service in Missoula, Montana; U.S. Geological Survey Regional Offices; Tennessee Valley Authority; National Research Council in Ottawa; Central Survey Office of British Columbia, and the Military Academy in Mexico City.

In the fall of 1936, he rejoined Dr. Hugershoff, together with Dr. Von Gruber, now with the Zeiss Works, Jena, Germany. For the next ten years, Heinz was head of the Technical Department of Zeiss-Aerotopograph for Development of Photogrammetric Instruments and Methods. During this period, Zeiss developed the Stereoplanograph Mapping Instrument. Heinz was responsible for preparation of technical manuals and traveled extensively by air to neutral countries during World War II installing photogrammetric equipment and training personnel.

At the end of World War II in Europe, American troops occupied Jena ahead of Russian occupation troops. U.S. Army personnel located Heinz at the Zeiss Works and offered his family passage out of Jena. The family had only a few hours to select possessions that would fit in one half of a 6' x 6' Army truck and leave East Germany ahead of the Russian troops. Heinz remained behind to assist Army personnel in the removal of some Zeiss equipment.

In 1946, Heinz signed a two-year agreement with the U.S. War Department in Washington. He was a consultant on instruments and procedural techniques and assisted in the installation and calibration of the Zeiss Stereoplanograph and other equipment at the Army Mapping Service and U.S. Geological Survey in Washington. During this two-year period, the Gruner family remained in West Germany in a community with many other German scientists’ families.