Karl von Terzaghi

Karl von Terzaghi (October 2, 1883 October 25, six months in Russia, he developed some novel graphi1963) was an Austrian civil engineer and geologist known cal methods for the design of industrial tanks, which he
as the father of soil mechanics".[1]
submitted as a thesis for his PhD at the university. His
growing list of achievements began to open more opportunity to him. He resolved to go to the United States,
which he did in 1912.
1 Biography

1.1

In the United States, on his own, he undertook an engineering tour of major dam construction sites in the West.
This was no ordinary tour, but was his opportunity to
gather reports and rsthand knowledge of the problems
of many dierent projects, and he used it to the fullest
before returning to Austria in December 1913. When
World War I broke out, he found himself drafted into
the army as an ocer directing a 250-man engineering
battalion. His responsibilities further increased, to leading 1,000 men, and he faced combat in Serbia and witnessed the fall of Belgrade.[4] After a short stint managing
an aireld, he became a professor at the Royal Ottoman
College of Engineering in Istanbul (now Istanbul Technical University).

Early life

In 1883, Karl von Terzaghi was born the rst child

of Army Lieutenant-Colonel Anton von Terzaghi and
Amalia Eberle in Prague, in what is now the Czech Republic. Upon his fathers retirement from the army, the
family moved to Graz, Austria.

At the age of ten, Terzaghi was sent to a military boarding

school, where he developed an interest in astronomy and
geography. At age fourteen, Terzaghi entered a dierent military school, in Hranice, the Crown of Bohemia.
He was an excellent student, especially in geometry and
mathematics, and graduated with honors at the age of
Here he began a productive and contented period, in
seventeen.[2]
which he began his lifelong work of bringing true enIn 1900, Terzaghi entered the Technical University in gineering understanding to soil as an engineering maGraz to study mechanical engineering, where he also de- terial whose properties could be measured in standardveloped an interest in theoretical mechanics. He was ized ways. He set up a laboratory using only the most
nearly expelled at one point but ended up graduating with rudimentary of equipment, and began his revolution.
honors in 1904.[3] Terzaghi then fullled his compulsory His measurements and analysis of the force on retaining
one-year military service. While fullling his military walls were rst published in English in 1919, and was
obligations, Terzaghi translated and greatly expanded a quickly recognized as an important new contribution to
popular English geology eld manual into German. He the scientic understanding of the fundamental behavior
returned to the university for one year and combined the of soils.[5]
study of geology with courses on subjects such as highway and railway engineering. Shortly thereafter he pub- At the end of the war, he was forced to resign his post at
lished his rst academic paper on the geology of terraces the University, but managed to nd a new post at Robert
College in Istanbul. Here he switched his teaching lanin southern Styria.[3]
guage from French to English, and again constructed a
laboratory out of the most simple equipment. This time
he studied various experimental and quantitative aspects
1.2 Early professional years
of the permeability of soils to water and was able to work
His rst job was as a junior design engineer for the rm out some theories to explain the observations. He inAdol Baron Pittle, Vienna. The rm was becoming more vented entirely new apparatus for the measurements and
involved in the relatively new eld of hydroelectric power put in many long days of work to carry out the measuregeneration, and Karl became involved in the geological ments himself. In 1924 he published much of this in his
which
problems the rm faced. His responsibilities quickly in- Magnum Opus, Erdbaumechanik (Soil Mechanics),
[6]
It
resulted
in a
revolutionized
the
eld
to
great
acclaim.
creased, and by 1908, he was already managing a conjob
oer
from
the
Massachusetts
Institute
of
Technology
struction site, workers, and the design and construction
of steel-reinforced structures. He embarked on an ambi- (MIT), which he immediately accepted.
tious and challenging project to construct a hydroelectric
dam in Croatia. He went on with great success to an
even more chaotic project in St. Petersburg. During
1

1.3

Later years

One of his rst tasks in the United States was to bring

his work to the attention of engineers. This he proceeded
to do by writing a series of articles for the Engineering
News Record, which were published in the winter of 1925,
then as a small book in 1926. He found the facilities at
MIT abominable and had to deal with obstruction from
the administration. Brushing these obstacles aside, he
once more set up a new laboratory geared towards making measurements on soils with instruments of his own
devising. He entered a new phase of prolic publication
and a rapidly growing and lucrative involvement as an engineering consultant on many large-scale projects.
In 1927, Aurelia Schober Plath, who would become the
mother of the poet Sylvia Plath, worked as a secretary for
Terzaghi. She was of Austrian descent and worked for
him by translating a handwritten manuscript in German
dealing with new principles of soil mechanics. After
work they would have dinner together, when Terzaghis
conversation led her to Greek drama, Russian literature,
the works of Hermann Hesse, the poems of Rainer Maria
Rilke, as well as the writings of great world philosophers.
She claims the experience aected her for the rest of her
life and that she realized how narrow my world had been
and that self-education could be and should be an exciting
lifelong adventure. It was the beginning of my dream for
the ideal education of the children I hoped some day to
have.[7] From 1926 to 1932, Arthur Casagrande, another
pioneer of soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering,
worked as Terzaghis private assistant at MIT.
Terzaghi was much sought-after as a dinner companion
and was a fascinating conversationalist. His striking good
looks and evident power was very attractive to women.
In 1928 he met the young Harvard doctoral student in
geology, Ruth Dogget, and fell deeply in love.
In 1928, Terzaghi was nally fed up with MIT and its
president, and determined to return to Europe. He accepted a chair at the Vienna Technische Hochshule in the
winter of 1929. He married Ruth, who became his editor
and collaborator as well. A short consulting trip to Russia
before taking up his post horried him, and he came to
oppose the Communist system there as a regime exemplied by its brutality and chaos.[8] Using Austria as his
base he traveled ceaselessly throughout Europe, consulting and lecturing, and making new professional contacts
and collaborations. His teaching workload was now relatively light, so he continued his experimental investigations, and became especially interested in the problems
of the settling of foundations, and of grouting. He began writing the manuscript for a much updated and expanded version of Erdbaumechanik, now set for two volumes. However, the political turmoil in Austria began to
interfere with his work, and in 1935 he decided to take a
leave from Vienna during 1935 to 1936.

LEGACY

Todt and the architects of the proposed grandiose plans

for immense buildings at the Nazis Party Day Rally site in
Nuremberg. This led to a conict over the best way to lay
a sound foundation, which led to a discussion with Hitler
himself, who took an intense interest in all details of the
architecture.[9] Terzaghi then returned to America where
he gave a plenary lecture at the International Conference
on Soil Mechanics at Harvard University (this event led
to the establishment of the International Society for Soil
Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering; Terzaghi was
its rst President).[10] He made a lecture tour of many
other universities, but discovered that prospects for employment were dim. He returned to Vienna in November
1936, shortly after the birth of his rst son Eric.
In Vienna, he returned to a nasty professional and political controversy (including an acrimonious dispute with
Paul Fillunger), which he overcame only with some
diculty.[11][12] He memorably stated The Fatherland
denoted me as a Nazi, the Nazis as a Bolshevik, and
the Bolsheviks as a conservative idealist. Certainly only
one of the three could be right, and that one is the
Bolsheviks.[13] He escaped from Vienna frequently by
extended consulting trips to major construction projects
in England, Italy, France, Algeria, and Latvia, adding
greatly to his engineering experience.
In 1938 Terzaghi emigrated to the United States and took
up a post at Harvard University. Before the end of the
war, he consulted on the Chicago Subway system, the
Newport News Shipways construction, and raising the
Normandie, among others. He became an American citizen in March 1943.[14] He was awarded the Frank P.
Brown Medal in 1946. He remained as a part-timer at
Harvard University until his retirement in 1953 at the
mandatory age of 70. In July of the next year, he became
the chairman of the Consulting Board for the construction
of the Aswan High Dam. He resigned this post in 1959
after coming into conict with the Russian engineers in
charge of the project, but continued to consult on various
hydroelectric projects, especially in British Columbia. He
died in 1963 and his ashes were interred in South Waterford, Maine, near Bears Corner, the family retreat.

2 Legacy
The American Society of Civil Engineers established in
1960 the Karl Terzaghi Award to an author of outstanding contributions to knowledge in the elds of soil mechanics, subsurface and earthwork engineering, and subsurface and earthwork construction.[15] The Terzaghi
and Peck Library, which is managed by the Norwegian
Geotechnical Institute, in Oslo, Norway, holds an extensive collection of his papers.

The Mission Dam in British Columbia, Canada, was reHe began his sabbatical with a short trip to consult with named in his honor as the Terzaghi Dam in 1965.

See also
Consolidation (soil)
Eective stress
Engineering geology
Geotechnical engineering
Retaining wall
Rock mass classications
Soil mechanics
Subsidence
Terzaghis Principle

[4] Goodman p 57
[5] Goodman p 67
[6] Goodman p 94-95
[7] Plath, A. S., Letters Home by Sylvia Plath-Correspondence 1950-1963, Harper and Row, 1975,
ISBN 0-06-013372-4
[8] Goodman p 119
[9] Goodman p 150
[10] History of the ISSMGE. ISSMGE. Retrieved 22 July
2013.
[11] Reint De Boer The Engineer and the Scandal-a piece
of scientic history Springer Verlag (2005) ISBN 3-5402311-0
[12] Goodman ch 12

Books

[13] Goodman p 168

[14] Goodman p 207

This list is incomplete; you can help by

expanding it.

Terzaghi, K., Theoretical Soil Mechanics, John Wiley and Sons, New York (1943) ISBN 0-471-853054.
Terzaghi, K., Peck, R. B. and Mesri, G., Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice, 3rd Ed. WileyInterscience (1996) ISBN 0-471-08658-4.
Terzaghi, K., Large Retaining Wall Tests, Engineering News Record Feb.1, March 8, April 19
(1934).
Terzaghi, K., From theory to practice in soil mechanics;: Selections from the writings of Karl Terzaghi,
with bibliography and contributions on his life and
achievents John Wiley and Sons (1967).
Terzaghi, K., Proctor, R. V. and White, T. L., Rock
Tunneling with Steel Supports, Commercial Shearing and Stamping Co. (1946).
Terzaghi, K., American Society of Civil Engineers,
Terzaghi Lectures, 1974-1982, American Society
of Civil Engineers (1986) ISBN 0-87262-532-X.

References

[1] B. M. Das, Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Cengage Learning, 2010, p 7 ISBN 978-0-495-41132-1
[2] R. E. Goodman, Karl Terzaghi, American Society of Civil
Engineers, 1999, p 13 ISBN 0-7844-0364-3
[3] Goodman p 16

[15] asce.org

6 External links
History of Geotechnical Engineering by Geoengineer.org
ejge.com/Terzaghi.htm
The Honorary Doctors Degree by Istanbul Technical University (ITU)

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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7.1

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Karl von Terzaghi Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl%20von%20Terzaghi?oldid=615082641 Contributors: Michael Hardy, Paul

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