GERHARDT

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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27.10.1847 Strausberg/D - 5.3.1923 Zehlendorf/D

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Paul Gerhardt received his education from Berlin Technical University and was from 1876 a Regierungs-Baumeister. He had visited the USA earlier following his Schinkelpreis award. After some years as an engineer at the Berlin headquarters of the Prussian Ministry, he was transferred to Königsberg, today's Kaliningrad in Russia. There, he directed drainage works from 1888 to 1893 of the Brandenburg Province and was also the chief of the fisheries department. In addition he lectured at Berlin Agricultural University. From 1895 to 1902, Gerhardt was a Königsberg Governmental Member and responsible for the harbors of Memel and Pillau in Eastern Prussia. There he was involved in basic works for dune construction as a protection of the estuaries. From 1902 to retirement in 1919, Gerhardt was a councilor of the hydraulic engineering governmental department, where he was particularly involved in the canal designs of Eastern Prussia. These influenced the Berlin-Stettin Canal, the regulation works for Havel River from Brandenburg to the sea, and improvements on the Oder-Spree Canal. Gerhardt traveled various times to Anatolia as a consultant for the irrigation works and engineering problems relating to the Baghdad railways, during a time when Imperial Germany supported the Ottoman government.

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Gerhardt is known for two chapters in the German Handbuch. The 1911 contribution relates to rainfall, groundwater and springs as a basic characteristic of all hydraulic projects. Fish passes were dealt with in the 1912 book, as one of the very early German contributions to bioengineering. He also published a book on dune construction and another on fish ways and fish ponds, following his expertise in these fields.

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_{Anonymous (1923). Paul Gerhardt. Die Bautechnik 1(11): 86.}

_{Anonymous (1996). Gerhardt, P. Deutsche biographische Enzyklopädie 3: 643. Saur: München. Gerhardt, P. (1900). Handbuch des deutschen Dünenbaues. Parey: Berlin.}

_{Gerhardt, P. (1904). Fischwege und Fischteiche. Engelmann: Leipzig.}

_{Gerhardt, P. (1908). The new sewage purification works for Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Germany. Engineering News 59(12): 301-304.}

_{Gerhardt, P. (1911). Regen, Grundwasser, Quellen und stehende Gewässer. Die Gewässerkunde. Der Wasserbau, Handbuch der Ingenieurwissenschaften 3(1): 1-115. Engelmann: Leipzig.}

_{Gerhardt, P. (1912). Die Fischwege. Stauwerke: 454-517. Der Wasserbau, Handbuch der Ingenieurwissenschaften 3(2). Engelmann: Leipzig.}