HOBRECHT

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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31.12.1825 Memel/LT - 8.9.1902 Berlin/D

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James Hobrecht was born in today's Klapeida, a city formerly in Eastern Prussia and presently in Lithuania. After graduation as a civil engineer from the Engineering Academy of Berlin he made study tours to wastewater stations of Hamburg, London and Paris, the results of which were published by his colleague Adolf Wiebe (1826-1908). Hobrecht served from 1862 to 1868 to the city of Stettin by setting up a notable drinking water scheme that produced admiration in the capital. Berlin then had a poor water supply and wastewater treatment, as described by Wiebe in 1861. Hobrecht submitted a design for the overall improvement of water quality in Berlin. He presented a radial system that could be enlarged along the city periphery and proposed the spray treatment for wastewater. Hobrecht's 1884 design became a standard for the capital, and later for German cities that suffered from this problem. Hobrecht was appointed member of the Berlin City Council in 1885. He improved roads and water courses, conveyed the waters from Spree River in a drainage canal that allowed vessels access to the capital. Hobrecht retired as Berlin city engineer in 1897.

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Hobrecht may be considered a real innovator for the German improvements in water quality. As was initiated by the Baron Haussmann in the 1850s in Paris, Hobrecht made an end to poor hygienic conditions in his country. Following this success, he was a consultant for other cities, such as Moscow, Cairo and Tokyo. He was decorated from the Göttingen University with the honorary doctorate; he was a Geheimer Baurat, a Member of the Royal Academy of Civil Engineering and an Honorary Citizen of Darmstadt. Hobrecht was a founding member of the German journal Vierteljahresschrift für Gesundheitswesen, one of the first technical journals in sanitation engineering.

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_{Anonymous (1902). James Hobrecht. Deutsche Bauzeitung 36(77): 493-495; 36(99): 647. P}

_{Grunewald, A. (1951). Zum 125. Geburtstag von Hobrecht. gwf/wasser 92(12): 158-159. P}

_{Hobrecht, J. (1883). Beiträge zur Beurtheilung des gegenwärtigen Standes der Kanalisationsund Berieselungsfrage. Ernst&Korn: Berlin.}

_{Hobrecht, J. (1884). Die Canalisation von Berlin. Ernst&Korn: Berlin.}

_{Stübben, J. (1903). Geheimer Baurat Dr. James Hobrecht. Vierteljahresschrift für Gesundheitspflege 35: I-V. P}

_{Thienel, I. (1972). Hobrecht. Neue Deutsche Biographie 9: 280-281. Duncker&Humblot: Berlin. Wiebe, A. (1861). Über Reinigung und Entwässerung der Stadt Berlin. Staatsdruckerei: Berlin. Wiebe, A. (1902). James Hobrecht. Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung 22(74): 453-454. P}