Otto Mayr (2 November 1930 – 10 February 2025) was a Germanmechanical engineer,historian of technology, curator, author and director of theNational Museum of History and Technology in Washington D.C. and theDeutsches Museum in Munich. He was particularly known for his work on "The origins of feedback control"[1] and "Authority, liberty, & automatic machinery in early modern Europe."[2]
Mayr was born inEssen as son of Otto Mayr and Dorothea (Grunau) Mayr. He obtained his engineering diploma inmechanical engineering from theTechnical University of Munich in 1956.[3]
Mayr died on 10 February 2025, at the age of 94.[4]
After his graduation in 1956, he had started his career as research assistant at theMIT Heat Power Laboratory for a year. From 1957 to 1960 he worked at the Swiss industrial engineering and manufacturing firmSulzer Ltd.
In 1960, Mayr returned to the US, where he worked another two years at the Control Instruments Division of Taylor Instruments Companies inRochester, New York. From 1962 to 1965 he was lecturer and later assistant professor of mechanical engineering at theRochester Institute of Technology. In 1964 he obtained his Master of Science at theUniversity of Rochester.[3]
From 1965 to 1968, he returned to Munich, Germany, where he was appointed research assistant at theDeutsches Museum at its research institute for science and technology history. In 1968 he obtained his PhD from theTechnical University of Munich for a thesis about the early history of technical regulations.
After his graduation in 1968, Mayr returned to the United States, where he was appointed curator at theNational Museum of History and Technology of the Smithsonian Institution, and chairman of the Department of History of Science and Technology.
In 1983, he returned to Munich to become general director of the Deutsches Museum, where he served until his retirement in 1992.
In 1988, Mayr was awarded the first-class merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and in 1992 he received theLeonardo da Vinci Medal from theSociety for the History of Technology (SHOT).
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