Hermann Recknagel

Hermann Recknagel (1869 - 1919) was a heating and air-conditioning technician and engineer, and the founder of Recknagel, an annual manual for heating and air-conditioning, published annually since 1897.

Recknagel studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich.

After graduation, he worked at Sulzer AG in Winterthur. His main interests were the problems related to air-conditioning, such as in the preliminary work on the ventilation of the Simplon tunnel, and de-dusting problems, such as in foundries and cleaning shops. 


In 1893, he received German and Austrian patents for the control of traction in ventilation ducts. He worked for two years at the invitation of Prof. Hermann Rietschel, the founder of heating and air conditioning, at his company Rietschel & Henneberg in Berlin. 
In 1898 he founded his own company in Munich, which installed heating and ventilation systems of all sizes. In 1909 he left the company and settled down in Berlin as a consulting engineer. 


Recknagel died after a serious illness, on 17 May 1919 in Munich. He was 50.

In 1897, he published The Recknagel, a 173-page calendar for heating and air-conditioning technicians. The calendar was subsequently expanded and reissued annually. At the time of his death in 1919, the calendar already had 360 pages; the 2009/10 edition had 2308 pages.

From 1952 onwards, Eberhard Sprenger began publishing Recknagel, which is now a pocket book for heating and ventilation. Ernst-Rudolf Schramek has been the editor since 1991.