Rudolf Diesel. A life of invention between triumph and tragedy. On the night of September 29 to 30, 1913, Rudolf Diesel died under circumstances that remain unclear to this day in the English Channel. The brilliant engineer and multimillionaire had become a failed man without means. An overly carefree lifestyle, unfavorable contracts, unsuccessful business ventures, and risky speculations had led the inventor of the diesel engine to poverty. From 1893 to 1897, Rudolf Diesel developed the engine named after him in collaboration with the Augsburg machine factory – now MAN – and the company Fried. Krupp in Essen. The engineer's family hails from Augsburg, where he was born in Paris and spent his childhood, as well as a brief period in London. At the age of twelve, he was sent to a foster family in Augsburg, where he attended school before studying in Munich.