Eveline Gottzein with satellites, rockets and maglev trains

On the evening of December 24, 2023, Eveline Gottzein, a mathematician and electrical engineer, died in Germany. The 92-year-old woman was a pioneer in German aerospace technology, satellites, rockets and maglev trains. As an engineer, she was one of the few women who received the highest award for invention patents.

Eveline Gottzein was born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1931. As the daughter of a mechanical engineer, she was interested in technology from an early age. In 1957, she graduated from the Technical University of Darmstadt. During her university years, she had already made a name for herself in an American company working on the simulation of complex technical systems. In the early 1960s, Eveline Gottzein began working for the company in Ottobrunn, Upper Bavaria. For more than 50 years, Eveline Gottzein has been working on armaments and space projects, including the low-flying defense system "Roland", the Europa rocket - the predecessor of the launch vehicle "Ariane" and the first German-French communications satellite. On May 6, 1971, the first voyage of the world's first maglev train developed by Eveline Gottzein was successfully tested on the track in Ottobrunn. She is one of the inventors of several patents for the control system of maglev trains.

Eveline Gottzein has received numerous German and international awards for her groundbreaking work. In 1993, she became the first woman to receive the Werner von Siemens Ring – one of the most important scientific honors in the German-speaking world.