SONNIN

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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10.6.1713 Quitzow/D - 8.7.1794 Hamburg/D

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The father of Ernst Georg Sonnin passed away when he was of age twelve such that his mother had to care for the eight children. Sonnin was taken in 1725 by a friend of the family to Hamburg; he made then studies in mathematics from 1734 at Halle University. Sonnin returned to Hamburg in 1737 to work as a teacher and doing mechanical works. In 1750 Sonnin was asked to reerect the Michaelis Church which had completely burned out after a lightning. He was buried in this church with his portrait being inserted on the church wall.

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From the 1750s, Sonnin was a successful hydraulic engineer. His first contract related to the deepening of the Hamburg harbor. In 1855 he added considerably to the water supply of the city. Then, in 1762, Sonnin presented an expertise on a canal linking the North Sea and the Baltic Sea across the Province of Schleswig-Holstein. The project was realized from 1777 to 1784 and the canal was renamed Eider Canal in 1853. Later, the North-East-Sea Canal realized between 1887 and 1895 followed partly Sonnin's original design. In collaboration with Johann Georg Büsch (1728-1800), Sonnin designed and executed the Hamburg city canal, a work lasting from 1758 to 1775. Also together with Büsch, Sonnin made an expertise on the regulation of the Elbe River in the surrounding of Hamburg. Sonnin took also interest in drainage works and the design of mills as a means of pumping device. He thereby used windmills in connection with the Archimedean screw and was able to erect several mills around 1780. Sonnin finally developed also an overshot water wheel for a paper mill in Schiffbek. His last work was an expertise against Büsch's proposal for a dike system to protect Hamburg from inundations both from the Alster River and the Sea.

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_{Franke, P.-G. (1989). Ernst Georg Sonnin. Wasser und Boden 41(12): 714. P}

_{Gerber, W. (1940). Leben und Wirken des hamburgischen Baukünstlers Ernst Georg Sonnin, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung seines Verhältnisses zu den Bauzünften seiner Zeit. Hamburg.}

_{Heckmann, H. (1977). Sonnin: Baumeister des Rationalismus in Norddeutschland. Mitteilung}

_{11. Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte: Hamburg.}

_{Heckmann, H. (1990). Die Gutachten des Baumeisters Ernst Georg Sonnin. Aus Deutschlands Mitte 23: Hamburg.}

_{http://home.arcor.de/prignitzportal/citizen/seite_sonnin_ernst_georg.htmhttp://home.arcor.de/prignitzportal/citizen/seite_sonnin_ernst_georg.htm . P}