PRÜSMANN

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

\

6.1.1854 Hannover/D - 8.6.1908 St. Peterburg/RU

\

Adolf Prüsmann was a German participant of the 11th International Navigation Congress in Saint Petersburg and passed away there due to a heart attack. He had graduated from the engineering academy of Hannover in 1876 and was appointed Regierungs-Baumeister in 1883. First adding to canalization works for the Main River he moved in 1888 to the Nogat River in Eastern Prussia, where he was responsible for the reconstruction of dikes that were destructed during winter floods. Shortly later Prüsmann was transferred to Kochem in Western Germany where he designed rehabilitation works for Moselle River. From there he moved in 1890 to Münster to design the Dortmund-Ems Canal connecting the industrial center around Dortmund with Emden on the North Sea.

\

The true challenge for Prüsmann was the design of the Mittelland-Kanal, however. This canal is essentially a connection between the West and the East of Germany, has a total length of 325 km and connects the cities of Dortmund with Magdeburg, close to Berlin, through Minden and Hannover. The water supplied to the canal originates mainly from the Edertalsperre close to Kassel. Works for that important German waterway were initiated under the direction of Leo Sympher (1854-1922) in 1906, and were completed in 1938. The Elbe-Havel Canal and local waterways around the capital allow a direct connection with the Oder River in Eastern Germany. An improved design of the Canal was completed in 2003. Prüsmann, then a Wasserbauinspektor, was appointed in 1906 head of the canal works in the region of Hannover. His unexpected death thus did not allow him to see the fruits of his works, and the development of the Prussian inland waterways system in general as the coronation of his professional life, therefore.

\

_{Anonymous (1908). Prüsmann. Zeitschrift für Architekturund Ingenieurwesen 54(4/5): 267. P}

_{Prüsmann, A. (1902). Der Ruhrorter Hafen, seine Entwicklung und Bedeutung. Schwann: Düsseldorf.}

_{Prüsmann, A. (1905). Vergleich von Schleusen und mechanischen Hebewerken. Zeitschrift für Bauwesen 55: 500-527; 56: 360-376.}

_{Prüsmann, A. (1909). Canal connecting the Rhine and the Elbe Rivers. Washington.}

_{Roloff, P. (1916). Fünfzig Jahre Elbstrombauverwaltung. Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung}

_{36(27): 190-194.}

_{Sympher, L. (1908). Oberbaurat A. Prüsmann. Zentralblatt Bauverwaltung 28(48): 329-330. P}

_{Sympher, L. (1920). Der Mittellandkanal. Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung 40(16): 97-104.}