ENGINEER

Béla Barényi

1907 - 1997

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Béla Barényi (1 March 1907, Hirtenberg, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy – 30 May 1997, Böblingen, Germany) was an ethnic Hungarian engineer from Austria-Hungary, who was a prolific inventor, sometimes even compared to Thomas Edison. Barényi made numerous crash protection inventions, and is therefore regarded as the father of passive safety in automotive design. "The lives of thousands of people have probably been saved thanks to Barényi's work." Barényi is also credited with first conceiving the original design for the German people's car (the Volkswagen Beetle) in 1925, – notably by Mercedes-Benz, on their website, including his original technical drawing, – five years before Ferdinand Porsche claimed to have made his initial version. Barényi was inducted into the Detroit Automotive Hall of Fame in 1994, and nominated for the award of Car Engineer of the Century in 1999. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Béla Barényi is the 233rd most popular engineer (down from 200th in 2019), the 741st most popular biography from Austria (down from 657th in 2019) and the 8th most popular Austrian Engineer.

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Among ENGINEERS

Among engineers, Béla Barényi ranks 233 out of 389. Before him are Anousheh Ansari, Seymour Cray, Johannes Winkler, Georgy Beriev, Benoît Fourneyron, and Enrico Forlanini. After him are Jon Postel, Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov, Eilmer of Malmesbury, Alfred Neubauer, René Panhard, and Hidetsugu Yagi.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1907, Béla Barényi ranks 216. Before him are Israel Albert Horowitz, Paul Magloire, Jean Van Houtte, James M. Gavin, Ernst Albrecht, and Sanya Dharmasakti. After him are Zezé Moreira, Ragnar Gustavsson, Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter, Gordon Douglas, Vasja Pirc, and Ludwig Biermann. Among people deceased in 1997, Béla Barényi ranks 173. Before him are Edward Osóbka-Morawski, Bengt Danielsson, William Hickey, Aurelio González, Tomoyuki Tanaka, and Cahit Arf. After him are Myrtle Bachelder, Dulce María Loynaz, Sándor Végh, Jurek Becker, Shinichi Hoshi, and Jarl Kulle.

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In Austria

Among people born in Austria, Béla Barényi ranks 741 out of 1,424. Before him are Ignaz von Seyfried (1776), Anton Josef Gruscha (1820), Victor Papanek (1923), İlber Ortaylı (1947), Pál Kitaibel (1757), and Richard Oswald (1880). After him are Daniel Gran (1694), Marietta Blau (1894), Alfred Riedl (1949), Archduke Friedrich of Austria (1821), Fritz Kortner (1892), and Joseph Schildkraut (1896).

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Among ENGINEERS In Austria

Among engineers born in Austria, Béla Barényi ranks 8. Before him are Alexander Wienerberger (1891), Hans Ledwinka (1878), Viktor Kaplan (1876), Carlo Abarth (1908), Aurel Vlaicu (1882), and Hanns Hörbiger (1867). After him are Hans Moravec (1948), and Erwin Komenda (1904).

Austrian born Engineers

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