Inexpressibly sad, infinitely grateful—countless memories that will remain. Dr.-Ing. Rudolf Fernengel, co-founder of our association
and one of the fathers of our AutomotiveAward, was taken from us far too soon. He was not only a dedicated companion, a highly knowledgeable expert, and a tireless advocate for the use of plastics for a sustainable world; he was a good friend to all of us, and we will miss him greatly.
For almost 40 years, Dr.-Ing. Rudolf Fernengel played a key role in shaping the work of the “International Society for Plastics Engineering / SPE Central Europe”. As a mechanical engineer and plastics specialist, as a senior executive in the automotive industry, and as an entrepreneur in the supplier sector, he possessed an almost inexhaustible knowledge of polymer materials, technologies, and processing methods. He used this expertise not only to build and further develop 2R Kunststofftechnik, which he runs together with his brother, but also shared it with the association.
Vehicle and aircraft manufacturing increasingly emerged as the drivers of innovation for plastics engineering developments. Accordingly, in the early 1990s Dr. Fernengel and Dr. Johnke proposed to the association that, based on the Automotive Division Award in the USA, an award should also be established in the German-speaking countries. Rudolf Fernengel threw himself into preparing the SPE AutomotiveAward with great enthusiasm, developed a concept, recruited renowned experts from plastics engineering, automotive engineering and the trade press for the jury, and organised the first jury meetings at his own company in Schweitenkirchen. In October 1992, the first Award Night took place in Neuss. For more than 25 years, as Technical Section Coordinator he chaired the jury meetings and celebrated the presentation of the submissions at the Award Night—many participants will remember his knowledgeable and enthusiastic descriptions of the components. Equally impressive were the plenary dialogues he held with his friend and mentor, Prof. Georg Menges, at the Award Night.
In 2018, Rudolf Fernengel decided to hand over his role as Technical Section Coordinator for the Automotive area to Thilo Stier. In the following year, the two of them chaired the jury meeting together and presented the components at the Award Night. But even after stepping back from the front line, he continued to support us with advice and practical help whenever we asked for his assistance. We would have gladly continued to draw on his expertise for a few more years.
With his unique expertise and extraordinary commitment, Dr.-Ing. Rudolf Fernengel decisively shaped the work of our association and, above all, the SPE AutomotiveAward. We will benefit for a long time from what he achieved. For this, we are infinitely grateful to him!
