GILLY

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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7.1.1748 Schwedt/D - 5.5.1808 Berlin/D

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At an age of only fifteen, David Gilly was involved in the improvement of the Netze River, and he moved around 1765 to the Warthe River for support in the regulation works. Both these water courses are located in today's Poland. In 1770 Gilly was proposed to King Frederick the Great as chief engineer for Pomerania. Works initiated with the drainage of Lake Madü. Gilly was appointed head of construction of the province in 1779 and started with the improvement of the harbors of Rügen, Colberg and Swinemünde on the Baltic Sea. From 1788 Gilly was occupied with large drainage projects in Western Prussia; he designed the Canal of Bromberg as well as the harbors of Danzig, and Elbing. He was in addition active for the improvement of reaches of the Vistula River. Over the years, Gilly thus was highly active with works relating to the improvement of rural life in Prussia. Once his son died in 1800, activities greatly reduced and finally resulted in his premature death.

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Gilly was a great architect of the classicism in general and may be considered a German having contributed significantly to the origins of hydraulic improvement of formerly deserted land. His 1800 Handbook contains in six volumes about all knowledge for land drainage. The 1803 book was prepared in collaboration with Johann Albert Eytelwein (1764-1848), one of his colleagues when lecturing at the Berlin engineering school. All the books were re-edited over decades and had a far reaching influence in Germany all through the nineteenth century.

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_{Anonymous (1938). In memoriam David Gilly. Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung 58(4): 85-98; 58(24): 653; 58(44): 1183-1191; 60(22): 313-316. P}

_{Anonymous (1964). Gilly, David. Neue Deutsche Biographie 6: 399. Duncker&Humblot: Berlin.}

_{Gilly, D. (1800). Handbuch der Landbaukunst Vorzüglich in Rücksicht auf die Construction der Wohnund Wirtschaftsgebäude für angehende Cameral-Baumeister und Oekonomen. Vieweg: Braunschweig.}

_{Gilly, D. (1801). Grundriss der Vorlesungen über das praktische bey verschiedenen Gegenständen der Wasserbaukunst. Realschulbuchhandlung: Berlin.}

_{Gilly, D., Eytelwein, J.A. (1803). Praktische Anweisung zur Wasserbaukunst. Realbuchhandlung: Berlin.}

_{Wallé, P. (1899). Aus der Geschichte der Technischen Hochschule in Berlin. Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung 19(27): 157-160; 19(29): 170-172. P}