Eberhart Ides

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Eberhart Ides (baptized on July 5, 1657 in Glückstadt ; † around 1712/13 presumably in Arkhangelsk ) was a businessman, manufacturer and diplomat.

Parents and names

The background to Ide's life is not well documented. His ancestors came from the Netherlands. His grandfather could have been Ide Isebrandt, who worked as a Höker in Glückstadt around 1645 and probably did not come to the city before 1630. His father Isebrand Ides worked in 1653 as a Höker and registered citizen of Glückstadt and in 1664 as a merchant and died there between 1665 and 1675.

Ide's last name was already unclear during his lifetime. He is also known as "Eberhard Isbrand Ides", "Evert Isebrand", "Monsieur Isbrant", "Mister Isbrant" or "Herr Isbrand", which indicates a patronymic . His sister can be found consistently in the church book of Glückstadt as "Clara Isbrant". However, Ides wrote travelogues in which he called himself "Evert Ysbant Ides". Thereafter, the names "Everhard Isbrand Ides", "Evert Ijsbrantszoon" and "Edewert Isbrand Ides" are also recorded. According to the baptismal register of the town church Glückstadt from 1657 he was “Isbrandt Ides son. Name Eberhardt ”.

Life

Probably around 1687 the merchant Ides moved from Holland to Russia and went to the tsar's court, where he gained influence. On behalf of Peter I , he went to Beijing in 1692 as a special envoy . There he was supposed to negotiate the border between China and Russia in favor of the Russians. It should also make free trade between the two countries possible. At the same time, he should research the ethnological and economic geographic situation in China.

After his trip, Ides returned to Russia. The metropolitan of Kazan and the archbishop of Novgorog-on-Don commissioned Ides to build three ships. The Tsar considered the completed ships to be the best that had been built by then and called them the "Isbrand ships". In 1698 Ides opened a powder mill on the Wora and a gun factory. In 1700 he got a job as a commissioner of the Admiralty in Arkhangelsk . Here he again commissioned some ships and traded in tow . In 1703/04 he had a powder mill near Moscow , which David Bacheracht († 1671), who probably came from Glückstadt, had founded in 1655. In 1711 Ides ran into major economic problems.

China trip

On the trip to China, which he led himself and which started in Moscow on March 13, 1692, Ides accompanied Adam Brand, among others . Born in Lübeck, he wrote the first travel report in 1698, but it was much less extensive than Ide's later notes.

On March 20, 1692 the tour group came to Vologda and drove over the frozen Suchona with a sledge. They crossed the north Russian ridge and then drove on the Kama and the Tschussowaja . At the beginning of June of the same year they crossed the Urals and continued their journey across rivers to Tobolsk , which they reached on July 1st. Then they sailed the Irtysh and the Ob north. They reached the Ket on September 1st and Yeniseisk on October 12th .

After a two-month stay, the group traveled around Ides on frozen rivers and reached Irkutsk on February 11, 1693 . They crossed Lake Baikal in mid-March and arrived in Ulan-Ude on March 19 , where an earthquake struck. In May they crossed the Jablonowy Mountains near Chita . With a raft trip over the Ingoda they traveled on to Nerchinsk , which they left on July 18th.

In September 1693, the group at the Great Hinggan Mountains first had contact with a Chinese guard. They arrived in Qiqihar on September 11th and saw the Great Wall on October 27th . On November 3rd, Ides and his companions reached Beijing. He could not achieve any negotiation success.

The return journey began on February 19, 1692, and they chose almost the same route as when they arrived. Both on the outward and on the return journey they encountered trackless areas, swamps, rapids, burning grass, people became sick, the risk of being attacked and too little food. They arrived in Yenisisky on August 25 and reached Tobalsk on November 29. The trip ended on February 1, 1695 in Moscow.

plant

When Peter I lived in Holland in 1697/98, Ides probably traveled with him and met the Amsterdam mayor Nicolaas Witsen there . Witsen knew Russia very well and in 1687 had drawn up a map of North and East Asia, which Ides had used, supplemented and improved on during his trip. Both previously also exchanged correspondence.

According to a short report by the Berlin resident Chr. Mentzel from 1696, Ides wrote about his “Driejarige Reize naar China…” and enclosed the map of Witsen, who edited his work. Ides had a good power of observation and knew how to describe clearly. He presented the physiognomy of the landscape traveled, the residents there - mostly Tungus - and their customs vividly, extensively and correctly. He also reported on the economy and localities, climatic conditions, hydrography, vegetation and morphology. In doing so, he particularly considered Eastern Siberia and thus created the first geographically error-free representation of the areas.

Ides also described Siberian travel techniques for the first time and was the first author to mention the finds of mammoths with preserved soft tissues. The Russians there explained the conditions in terms of geohistory and paleoclimatic relationship, which were necessary for the preservation of the carcasses, in almost the same way, as was later to be read in the cataclysm theory of Georges Cuvier .

family

Ides married Anna Münter on January 24, 1697 in Moscow, whose father Heinrich Münter worked there as a businessman. In his second marriage, also in Moscow, on April 29, 1705, he married Gertrud Andrews, whose father could possibly have been the manufacturer Thomas Andrews.

There is evidence that Ides had a son and a daughter: the son Peter Ides died as a commissioner at the Moscow General Post Office on October 7, 1735 in Leningrad . A daughter, unknown by name, who died in Lüneburg on August 27, 1746 , was the wife of superintendent Friedrich Peter Lange.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Ides, Eberhart
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Isebrand, Evert; Ides, Everhard Isbrand; Ides, Edewert Isbrand; Ijsbrantszoon, Evert; Ides, Eberhard Isbrand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Merchant, manufacturer and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH July 5, 1657
PLACE OF BIRTH Glückstadt
DATE OF DEATH around 1712-1713
Place of death Arkhangelsk