Georg Rimpler

Georg Rimpler (born c. 1636, died 1683) was a German military engineer. A well-travelled engineer, Rimpler served in a number of European armies before being appointed Chief Engineer of the Holy Roman Empire in 1681. He was killed during the 1683 Siege of Vienna.

Biography Rimpler was born Georg Rümpler in Leisnig, Electorate of Saxony, in either 1634, 1635, or 1636. The son of a butcher, Rimpler pursued a military career and joined the Swedish Army at the age of 20. Initially serving as a musketeer, Rimpler fought during the 1656 Siege of Riga and later took an interest in military fortifications. During the 1660s he received an education in Nuremberg, studying under German mathematician Georg Gork.

In 1669 Rimpler accompanied a detachment of Swedish soldiers to Candia, a Venetian possession which was then in the final year of a 20-year long siege by the Ottoman Empire. Rimpler drew inspiration from the effectiveness of the Venetian defenses, and upon his return to mainland Europe wrote several papers about siege warfare. He also continued his foreign military service, advising the Dutch army against the French. Rimpler commanded parts of the city's defenses until being mortally wounded by an Ottoman mine on 25 July, dying on either 2 or 3 August in a makeshift hospital.

Legacy Rimpler's engineering legacy is mixed, with many of his contemporaries criticizing his designs as being overly complicated or expensive. A theory that one of his designs, the "Rimpler Angle", influenced 18th-century fortress design was embraced by some historians but remains in dispute.