title: Franz Pitzinger
text: # Franz Pitzinger
  
  Franz Pitzinger (22 May 1858, Enzersdorf an der Fischa – 10 October 1933, Hofstetten-Grünau) was a naval architect in late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Austria-Hungary.
  
  ## Naval career
  
  He studied mechanical engineering at the Vienna University of Technology and started his career at Clayton & Shuttleworth. Pitzinger joined the Austro-Hungarian Navy in 1886. He spent much of his career at the naval arsenal in Pula. He had significant design responsibilities for the Erzherzog Karl-class battleships and the Radetzky-class battleships. He led the design of the Ersatz Monarch-class battleships which were cancelled when World War I broke out in 1914. In 1914 he was promoted to Naval Constructor General. His naval career ended in 1918 with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
  
  