Béla Barényi

The native form of this personal name is Barényi Béla. This article uses the Western name order.

Bela Barenyi
File:Barényi Béla.jpg Bela Barenyi
Born	Béla Barényi (1907-03-01)March 1, 1907 Hirtenberg, Lower Austria, Austria, Austro-Hungarian Empire
Died	Boeblingen, Germany
Nationality	Austrian
Education	Privatfachschule für Maschinenbau und Elektrotechnik, Vienna, Austria
Occupation	Inventor, Engineer
Relatives	Friedrich Barényi (aviation pioneer) (brother), Seraphin Keller (industrialist) (great-grandfather), Fridolin Keller (industrialist) (grandfather)

Béla Barényi (1 March 1907 in Hirtenberg, Austria – 30 May 1997 in Boeblingen, Germany) was an Austrian engineer, of Hungarian heritage and Austrian heritage (from his father's and mother's side, respectively). He is regarded as the father of passive safety in automobiles. He was born in Hirtenberg, Austria near Vienna, Austria during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father Jenő Berényi (1866–1917) was a Hungarian officer, a teacher at the military academy at Pressburg, a former Hungarian capital (now more commonly known as Bratislava after the creation of Czechoslovakia following World War I and the Treaty of Trianon).

File:Hirtenberg-Kellersche-Villa-am-Bach (1887).jpg

Barényis birth house, the villa of the Austrian industrial magnates of the Keller family into which Barenyi was born

Barényi was known as a prolific inventor. There have been claims that, when he retired on 31 December 1972, he had more than 2000 patents, twice as many as Thomas Edison; and claims that Barényi had over 2500 patents by 2009. However, the claims include patents filed in multiple countries for the same invention, which are not separate inventions. Barényi's patent count documented at the European Patent Office is 1,244 worldwide with 595 of those filed in Germany, the primary filing country of his primary employer.

After mechanical and electrical engineering studies at the Vienna college, he was employed by various Austrian automobile companies: Austro-Fiat, Steyr and Adler automobile companies before joining Daimler-Benz in 1939. Heading the pre-development department of Daimler-Benz from 1939 to 1972, he developed e.g. the concept of the crumple zone, the non-deformable passenger cell, collapsible steering column, safer detachable hardtops etc. and other features of Mercedes-Benz automobiles.

He is also credited with having conceived the basic design for the Volkswagen Beetle in 1925, five years before Ferdinand Porsche claimed to have done his version. Barényi was nominated for the award of Car Engineer of the Century in 1999 and inducted into the Detroit Automotive Hall of Fame in 1994.

Barényi died in Böblingen, Germany. A Mercedes advertisement featuring Barényi’s image stated: “No one in the world has given more thought to car safety than this man.” Bela Barenyi left a broad record of his inventions to Technisches Museum Wien in Vienna in his native country Austria.