Otto Karl Eduard Budde
Otto Karl Eduard Budde (1848-1909)
1910 Obituary [1]
OTTO KARL EDUARD BUDDE died on December 14, 1909, at Essen after a long illness. He was born at Bensberg, in the Rhine Province, on June 15, 1848. He received his technical education at the Polytechnic in Zurich, and in 1871 he entered the employment of the Gutehoffnungshutte at Sterkrade as improver. While there he supervised the construction of the two-level railway bridge which spans the Ruhr near Kettwig.
In the following year he was engaged as engineer with Simpson & Co. of London, during which time he perfected himself in the English language. He returned to Germany in 1873, and took up a position in the steelworks of Friedrich Krupp. Alfred Krupp afterwards appointed him his technical assistant.
It was about this time that the Krupp Works turned their attention to the manufacture of armour plates, and it was Budde's task to work out the ideas and plans of his chief and to assist especially in making tests of the material at the testing grounds. After the death of Alfred Krupp in 1887 he was transferred to the Construction of Artillery Department, for the sole management of which he became responsible in 1893. In 1895 he was elected a member of the Board of Messrs. Krupp, in which capacity he still continued to supervise the Artillery Department. Unfortunately he was compelled by failing health to retire in 1907, after a period of active service with the firm of thirty-four years.
He survived his brother, Hermann von Budde, the former Minister of State, by a few years. He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1891.