Obituary of Kurt Wittenschlaeger

Kurt Dietrich Wittenschlaeger was born on April 2, 1926 in Cologne, Germany to Anna and Dietrich Wittenschlaeger. He spent his childhood in Magdeburg, an industrial city in northwestern Germany, and joined the German Army late in the war as a cavalry officer. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. After the war concluded, he found himself trapped in East Germany and architected an escape to West Germany from East Germany. After working his way through engineering school, he married Lieselotte Ehreche in Magdeburg at the age of 25 and was recruited to emigrate to the United States. In December of 1957, the family crossed the Atlantic on the SS America, arriving in New York with $1.25 in cash and great hopes for a new future. His first job was working as a mechanical engineer and draftsman in Long Island. He subsequently moved to Pittsburgh, PA where he worked for Blaw Knox, designing complex rolling mills for the steel industry. He lost his wife, Liesellotte to Hodgkin's disease after a prolonged illness at the age of 37. He remarried Dolores Reyes two years later. Kurt moved to Owensboro, KY and joined Martin Marietta, shifting his industry focus from steel to aluminum. Subsequently, he moved to Tacoma, WA and served as Chief Shipyard Engineer for the Port of Tacoma. Kurt passed away the morning of 21 October 2011 at the age of 85. He is survived by his wife of 44 years, Dolores, his two sons, Ernst Dietrich and Thomas Michael, and a total of five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.