Gerhard Sedlacek, Aachen and Steel Construction

On 1 February 2012 steel construction in Europe lost a leading personality in Gerhard Sedlacek, who consistently drove forward the process of European unity in steel construction. The deceased professor was an engineering personality of international stature and was, for example, largely responsible for the founding of the Centre for Metallic Design ZMB e.V., a merger of six institutes at the RWTH Aachen who have now been working together successfully on steel application research since 2002.

August Hertwig and Gerhard Sedlacek as editors of the journal Stahlbau made important contributions to the development of specialist literature, and this has been continued since Juli 2012 by the new editorial consultant for Stahlbau, Professor Markus Feldmann; since 2004, he has managed the Institute for Steel and Lightweight Structures of the RWTH Aachen built up by Gerhard Sedlacek, today one of the leading institutes in Europe.