Ludwig Elsbett: Way ahead of his time

Sustainability has become a buzz word around machine development, yet the engineer, inventor and engine designer Ludwig Elsbett was a step ahead in this area. As early as the 1950s, he warned against exploiting nature and had devised many ideas on how to reduce CO2 emissions. From the late 1980s, Ludwig had gained a reputation within the agricultural machinery industry for constructing tractor engines that ran solely on vegetable oil.

Born in 1913 in the small town of Salz in Bavaria, Ludwig trained as a farm machinery mechanic and went on to complete a degree in mechanical engineering in just two years. From 1937, he worked in the research and development department for aircraft maker Junkers. He was tasked with designing light, simple and economical engines.

Staying cool

After the war, Ludwig built ‘new’ commercial vehicles as well as stationary