Non-Autonomous Weinblum Memorial Foundation
Shortly after his death, a group of Weinblum’s friends began to make plans for establishing a foundation. Their shared goal was to honour the spirit and legacy of Georg Weinblum – or, more precisely [1]:
Our common motivation has been to preserve and strengthen among the international community of ship hydrodynamicists that special attitude which we may find hard to define precisely but which we all cherish fondly as the spirit of Georg Weinblum.
Establishing a permanent series of lectures was regarded as a respectful and also productive way to honour Weinblum’s ethos and scientific contributions. Thus, the Weinblum Memorial Lecture was founded. The lectures were intended to be held in Hamburg and then given for a second time in the United States.
The funds necessary for travel and accommodation were raised in Germany, leading to a substantial initial deposit on behalf of the non-autonomous Weinblum Memorial Foundation. The money was handed over to the University of Hamburg, Weinblum’s last place of work, along with the mandate to be responsible for organising the lectures to be held in Germany. The constitutive agreement was signed in 1978 [2].
A second, parallel fund was erected in the United States for the lectures to be held there and is managed by the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) [2]. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) also offered generous financial support [3].
The original Institut für Schiffbau at the University of Hamburg no longer exists and the German half of the Weinblum Memorial Foundation is now affiliated with the Hamburg University of Technology.
If you have questions or requests for Foundation representatives, please contact us. We will forward your inquiry to the responsible parties in Germany and the US.
Documents
[1] Memo by Som Deo Sharma and John N. Newman
[2] Original and supplementary agreements on establishment
[3] Response letter from Theodore Y. Wu to the memo [1]