Person

Kaplan, Prof. Dr. Viktor (27.11.1876 - 23.08.1934)

Austrian engineer.

Viktor Kaplan studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Vienna from 1895 and graduated in 1900. He then worked as a design engineer at the Leobersdorf Machine Works. Thanks to his invention of an improved internal combustion engine, he was appointed to a post at the German Technical University in Brno in 1903, where he worked at the Department of Mechanical Engineering. In 1909, he obtained his habilitation and in 1913 became head of the Institute for the Theory and Construction of Water Turbines. In 1918, he was appointed full professor. From 1922 onwards, he suffered from serious illness and died in 1934 at his country estate in Unterach on Lake Attersee.

His most significant invention is the Kaplan turbine, named after him, a water turbine typically featuring four adjustable blades. It was not until the construction of a Kaplan turbine with a runner diameter of 5.7 metres in the 1950s for the large Swedish power station at Lilla Edet that the new invention began to gain widespread acceptance worldwide.

His portrait was featured on the 1,000-Schilling note issued in 1961.

http://viaf.org/viaf/32791414

https://d-nb.info/gnd/118720783

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q78926

https://ikmk.smb.museum/ndp/person/17535

05.08.2026