Univ.-Prof. Dr. Franz Pongratz

Franz Pongratz was born the son of a craftsman and completed secondary school in Vienna. After graduating from high school, he began studying civil engineering at the Technical University in Vienna (Dipl.-Ing. 1920, Dr. rer. techn. 1926), where he joined the Franco-Bavaria student fraternity. During the war, he served for 18 months as a technician in the Landsturm.

After the First World War and his graduation, Franz Pongratz was an assistant at the Chair of Reinforced Concrete and Statics at the Vienna University of Technology from 1921 to 1927. From 1927 to 1929, he worked for the Lower Austrian Chamber of Agriculture, where he designed and managed the construction of various agricultural buildings.

In 1929, Franz Pongratz obtained his building license and set up his own business as a civil engineer and master builder. In 1934, he became involved in the Patriotic Front and became the federal representative for technicians in the liberal professions. At the suggestion of the Chamber of Engineers for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, he was appointed to the Federal Economic Council, of which he was a member from 1934 until March 12, 1938. This elected him as one of the secretaries. In 1936, he was appointed to the Supervisory Board of Universale Hoch- und Tiefbau AG and in 1937 was elected President of the Chamber of Engineers for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland.

After the Anschluss in March 1938, Franz Pongratz was relieved of all his offices and worked as a civil engineer and master builder during the war.

After the Second World War, he was Vice President from 1945 to 1951 and President of the Chamber of Engineers for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland again from 1951 to 1954. In 1953/54, Pongratz was also Vice President of the Federal Conference of the Liberal Professions in Austria.

In 1946, Franz Pongratz was appointed full professor of reinforced concrete and solid construction at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture at Vienna University of Technology. He was Dean of this faculty from 1951 to 1953, Rector of the Vienna University of Technology in 1956/57 and Vice-Rector in 1957/58. He retired in 1966.

Franz Pongratz was considered a specialist in prestressed concrete structures. His most important buildings include the reservoir on Salzburg's Mönchsberg, the Großram highway bridge, warehouse buildings at the former Nordbahnhof railway station and an arch bridge over the Erlauf river.