Background
Julius Dorpmuller was born in Elberfeld on 24 July 1869.
Julius Dorpmuller was born in Elberfeld on 24 July 1869.
After studying engineering at Aachen Technical College, he entered the Prussian railway service and also spent some time working for the Chinese Imperial Railways before 1914. At the end of World War I he found himself in Russia after fleeing from China, and managed to return safely to Germany where he continued his work with the railroad system. In 1926 he was appointed Director General of German State Railways. After the Nazis came to power, he was frequently honoured and decorated, and his engineering expertise was highly regarded by Hitler who appointed him Chairman of the Autobahn Management Committee. In 1937 he was nominated Reichsverkehrminister (Reich Minister of Transport), a post which he held until the fall of the Third Reich.
He died in Malente, Schleswig-Holstein, on 5 June 1945.