HONSELL

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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10.11.1843 Konstanz/D - 1.7.1910 Karlsruhe/D

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Max Honsell graduated in 1865 from the Karlsruhe Polytechnic and joined then the direction of roads and hydraulic engineering. He contributed there to the Rhine River restoration initiated by Johann Gottfried Tulla (1770-1828). These works intended navigation improvement between Germersheim and Strasburg. Honsell, an Oberbaurat from 1881, was appointed in 1883 director of the Central Office of Meteorology and Hydrography. There he collected relevant data relating to the County of Baden as the basis of future works on the river. Baden County had taken leadership in Germany, mainly based on Honsell's work. A significant work was his 1889 report on Rhine River. It contradicted the common believe according to which large floods were essentially caused by the reduction of river length, which amounted for some reaches to up of one forth of the original length.

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Honsell was appointed in 1894 Oberbaudirektor and promoted five years later to director of Water and Roads of Baden County. In 1904 the Counties of Baden, Bavaria and Alsace-Lorraine guaranteed a minimum of 2 m water depth for the fairway during low discharge conditions. Whereas Tulla had the merit to tame the wild Rhine River during flood flows, Honsell added an important element to its performance during the dry season. From 1886 to 1903 Honsell was a Lecturer in hydraulic engineering at Karlsruhe University. In 1907 he was appointed Minister of Finances of the County; he was awarded the honorary doctorate from Karlsruhe University.

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_{Anonymous (1910). Finanzminister Dr.-Ing. Max Honsell. Deutsche Bauzeitung 44: 427-430. Bleines, W. (1972). Honsell. Neue Deutsche Biographie 9: 602-603. Duncker&Humblot: Berlin.}

_{Honsell, M. (1879). Der Bodensee und die Tieferlegung seiner Hochwasserstände. Wittwer: Stuttgart.}

_{Honsell, M. (1889). Der Rheinstrom und seine wichtigsten Nebenflüsse von den Quellen bis zum Austritt aus dem Deutschen Reich. Centralbureau für Meteorologie und Hydrographie im Grossherzogtum Baden. Ernst&Korn: Berlin.}

_{Honsell, M. (1890). Die Wasserstrasse Mannheim-Ludwigshafen und Kehl-Strassburg - Canal oder freier Rhein? Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung 10(11): 105-107; 10(12): 113-115; 10(13): 128-130; 10(13a): 133-136; 10(14): 140-143.}

_{Rehbock, T. (1910). Dr.-Ing. Max Honsell. Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung 30(55): 369. P}

_{Wittmann, H. (1949). Tulla, Honsell, Rehbock, Lebensbilder dreier Wasserbauingenieure am Oberrhein. Bautechnik-Archiv 4. Ernst&Sohn: Berlin.}