Béla Barényi, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Béla Barényi

Hungarian engineer and inventor

Date of Birth: 01-Mar-1907

Place of Birth: Hirtenberg, Lower Austria, Austria

Date of Death: 30-May-1997

Profession: engineer, inventor

Nationality: Austria, Germany

Zodiac Sign: Pisces

Béla Barényi (1 March 1907, Hirtenberg, Austria – 30 May 1997, Böblingen, Germany) was an Austro-Hungarian engineer, who was a prolific inventor, sometimes even compared to Thomas Edison.
Barényi made numerous crash protection inventions, and is therefore regarded as the father of passive safety in automotive design.Barényi is also credited with first conceiving the original design for the German people's car (the Volkswagen Beetle) in 1925, – notably by Mercedes-Benz, on their website, including his original technical drawing, – five years before Ferdinand Porsche claimed to have made his initial version.Barényi was inducted into the Detroit Automotive Hall of Fame in 1994, and nominated for the award of Car Engineer of the Century in 1999. Barényi died in Böblingen, Germany in 1997.
A Mercedes advertisement featuring Barényi’s image stated: “No one in the world has given more thought to car safety than this man.” Béla Barényi left a broad record of his inventions to the Technisches Museum Wien in Vienna in his native country.