REISSE

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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13.5.1854 Hofgeismar/D - 30.12.1916 Bad Blankenburg/D

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August Reisse graduated from the Engineering Academy of Berlin in 1877 and started his career at the Danzig Dock, today's Gdańsk in Poland. From 1884 he was involved in the regulation of the tidal reach of River Pinnau, a tributary of Elbe River in Eastern Germany. Shortly later, he moved to Neufahrwasser at the Prussian coast close to Danzig to collaborate to coastal engineering works and to dune construction for coastal protection against storms. His motivation was always a natural design. Reisse was transferred in 1890 to the Fulda River and stationed in Cassel. There he designed and executed dams in Spiekershausen and Wolfsanger until returning to Eastern Germany in 1894 again. He was appointed director of the Pillau Harbor on the Baltic Sea, where he was involved in the design of the Sea Canal of Königsberg, today's Kaliningrad in Russia. That major city was until then separated by 8 km from a bay. An elder canal had an extremely small depth and ships from the sea were unable to move to the city. The new Canal was inaugurated in 1901; it had a depth of 6.5 m and was 30 m wide. In the winter, icebreakers held the waterway normally open. The total length of the waterway from the Baltic Sea to Königsberg is 46 km.

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Reisse made various visits to countries of Western Europe, to compare their approaches related to coastal engineering with his proposals and to implement novel ideas in his own designs. In 1900 he was transferred to Stralsund to remove the damages that had occurred during the heavy winter storms in Pomerania. In 1905 then, he finally moved to Aurich on the North Sea close to the Netherlands, where he initiated the redesign of the Sea Harbor Emden. Yet, these works were not completed because of a call to Berlin, where he continued in the Ministry of Public Works to improve hydraulic structures all over Prussia. Reisse was a Geheimer Baurat from 1907 and promoted to Geheimer Oberbaurat in 1913.

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_{Brandt, E. (1917). August Reisse. Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung 37(7): 39-40. P}

_{Bürger, K. (1984). August Reisse. Altpreussische Biographie 4: 1471-1472. Elwert: Marburg. Hoffmann, A. (2005). August Reisse. Hessische Lebensbilder zur Kulturgeschichte des Wassers: 239. Universität: Kassel. P http://www.provinz-ostpreussen.de/koenigsberg/ko_seekanal.html}