Eduard Pestel

File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F041173-0013, Frankfurt, Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels.jpg

Eduard Pestel (rechts), 1973

Eduard Kurt Christian Pestel (29 May 1914 – 19 September 1988) was a German industrial designer, economist, professor of mechanics and politician who was born in Hildesheim and died in Hannover. He was coauthor with Mihajlo Mesarovic of Mankind at the turning point, the second report to the Club of Rome in 1974 which expanded and reviewed the predictions of The Limits to Growth.

Biography

After a three years study for bricklayer, Pestel received further education at the Fachhochschule in Hildesheim and from 1935 to 1938 at the Leibniz University Hannover. and subsequently at Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York, where he received a master's degree in mechanical engineering. While in Troy, he met Jackie Evans, whom he married in 1941 and, unable to return to Germany across the Atlantic due to the blockade, set off to the west with his new bride. After stopping briefly in San Francisco and Hawaii, they set sail for Japan with the intention of catching the Trans Siberian Express in Manchuria and reaching Germany through the "backdoor." When they reached Japan in the late summer of 1941, they decided to stay long enough for Jackie to give birth to their first son, Robert, and to recuperate until early Spring before the long train ride to Moscow and on to Berlin and Hannover. Then Pearl Harbor happened on December 7th, summarily sinking their plans to return to Europe. They stayed in Japan until 1946, during which time Pestel worked for an engineering firm in Kobe, supporting what would become a family of three (Susanne, b.1943, Wendy, b.1946) by the end of the war. At that point, Pestel, who had earlier won commissions through his company in Kobe to build 50,000 western toilets and refrigerators for the allied soldiers, received permission from General MacArthur to accompany his family back to the States. The family was flown to Air-force headquarters in Dayton, Ohio, at which point, Pestel, a German national, was promptly sent back to Germany. The continuing Atlantic Blockade prevented any family reunion until the Fall of 1949. Pestel's fourth child, Michael, was born in Germany in 1950. Pestel matriculated at the Technische Hochscule in 1951 with a doctorate in mechanical engineering, and received his full Professorship of Mechanics at the Technische Hochschule Hannover (today Leibniz University Hannoverin 1956. Eduard and Jackie divorced in 1960. Pestel was since 1956 a full Professor of Mechanics at the Technische Hochschule Hannover (today Leibniz University Hannover. Pestel founded the chair of mechanics in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Haifa (Technion) in Israel. Also, he founded in 1975 the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and Forecast (ISP), which was renamed in his honor as the Eduard Pestel Institute for Systems Research. In 1966 he was a member of the NATO Science Committee, and later a member of the Board of Trustees of the Volkswagen Foundation and Vice President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. In 1968 he was one of the founders of the Club of Rome. He also saw the founding of the German Association of the Club of Rome (DGCoR) in 1978, of which he was the first chair, position he held until his death. In Lower Saxony, he was Minister of Science and Arts from 1977 to 1981 as a member of the CDU Party. In this time, he worked on the restructuring of the German Technion Society founded by Albert Einstein in 1924, banned during the Nazi era and completed in 1982; it promotes cooperation between Jewish and German scientists. Eduard Pestel was president of this society until his death. In 1982, Pestel, the Max Born Medal awarded for responsibility in science. Pestel was married to Anneliese Ude-Pestel, an analytical psychotherapist and author.

Publications

• 1963. Matrix methods in elastomechanics. With Frederick A. Leckie.
• 1968. Dynamics. With William T. Thomson.
• 1969. Statics . With William Tyrrell Thomson
• 1974. Multilevel computer model of world development system, April 29-May 3, 1974 : summary of the proceedings. Edited with M. Mesarovic.
• 1974. Mankind at the turning point. With Mihajlo Mesarovic.
• 1989. Beyond the Limits to growth : a report to the Club of Rome.

External links

• Biography at pestel-institut.de