Yew tree Siade Johans

Yew Siade Johans (* 27. May 1659 in Padingbüttel ; † 1. January 1720 ) was a farmer, dike building champion and at times of storm surges in 1717 and 1718 a dikemaster in kurhannoverschen services.

origin

Padingbüttel coat of arms

Yew tree Siade Johans (also Eybe Siad Johanns ) was born on the Wurster North Sea coast directly behind the dike. The Johans family belonged to the rural upper class, who descended from wealthy farmers of Frisian origin. The family coat of arms in the church there, showing three silver clovers on green, was later the template for the coat of arms of Padingbüttel.

Life

Johans took over his parents' farm in Padingbüttel-Altendeich when he was around 20 years old. In March 1683 he was elected deputy for those interested in new land in the parish of Padingbüttel and one of the two Wurster provincial leaders. From 1692 to 1694 he managed the local dyke construction as a competent private individual. During the first decade of the 18th century he was head of the dyke cooperative in Wurster Süderneufeld. In 1708 Johans applied to the Swedish government for the office of dike harbors on the Unterweser, which was granted to him because he was financially independent and waived his civil servant salary. After the end of Swedish rule in 1712, he was dismissed, but reactivated a few years later by government councilors from the Electorate of Hanover.

Christmas flood 1717

Depiction of a dike breach in 1718, probably related to the Christmas flood of 1717

At the beginning of 1717 Johans was appointed Oberdeichgraf and had the dikes on the Wurster North Sea coast secured just before the Christmas flood of 1717 . In anticipation of the impending dike breach, he had as many neighbors as possible evacuated in advance and accommodated on his farm. On Boxing Day 1717, Johans on horseback, together with the dyke sworn Johann Dürels from Misselwarden , inspected the enormous damage to dykes and farmhouses that had been washed away in large numbers or trapped by the floods along with the desperate residents.

End of life and aftermath

Failures, manifold hostilities from his successor Jacob Ovens and serious illness shaped his last phase of life. In 1719, under Johans, 72,500 Reichstaler were spent on building the dike. Johans died on January 1st, 1720 on his farm and was buried on January 30th in the churchyard in Padingbüttel. Johans had sealed and implemented a dike law that was valid well into the 20th century and is still considered an outstanding dikemaster.

Letter and sketches of the dike by his nephew Eibe Siade Johans

His nephew of the same name Eibe (also Eide) Siade Johans applied to the government in Stade for the next vacant post on September 24, 1723, including some sketches for building the dike. The letter was approved by Ramd. Mistake. In it, Johans jun. briefly his studies in law and mathematics as well as his previous experience at the court of the state of Wursten and in dike construction. When the Leher was Judge Long promoted and came to the throne in Stade, Johan was jun. on December 23, 1725 the new judge in Lehe. He held this office until his death on March 23, 1760.

Originals in the Lower Saxony State Archives - State Archives Stade (designated as public domain )

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Transcription to NLA ST Rep. 40 No. 1415, recording 0008-0009

Highly born, gracious and noble lords, Ew. Excellences deign graciously and highly inclined to hear how that after absolvirten academical studies than in Juriby and Mathesi me to house bey local courts in the country Wursten geübet me something in Praxi in which Mathesi namely in specie the Waßer construction, some Praxin ( ?) I saw a few gaps in Bremen, Oldenburg and East Frisian plugged in, and where the Dutch and Angels saw some water works, such as some dimensions, the sub littera A and B attached pages (which here without the necessary instruments and mine Observationibus made in Eyle) speciminis loco [representative examples] can be. Since there is also a desire to exempt such things further, also to profit from which sui and we, of the construction matters that have occurred, also to lend a hand ourselves. But such a thing without Ew. Excellences gracious permission and prescription cannot happen. So I want to hereby ask humbly the same, you want to give her high approval for this, as well as in specie a generale Exspectance impart to the first in the country Wursten losfallenden Operation graciously: I, incidentally, with all the devotion I remain, Ew. Excellency's most submissive servant

Hanover d. September 24th, 1723 Eide Siade Johans

literature

• Jacob Ovens: Lebens-Lauff. My finite but happy Ober-Teich-Inspectoris Jacob Ovens, who had been arrested for some time at Stade . Frankfurt and Leipzig 1724 ( digitized in the Google book search [accessed on April 16, 2020]).
• WH Jobelmann: The Oberdeichinspector Jacob Owens, a contribution to the history of the storm surge from 1717 and the origin of the Königl. Wischhafen office in the state of Kehdingen . In: Archives of the Association for History and Antiquities of the Duchies of Bremen and Verden and of the State of Hadeln zu Stade . tape 7 . Pockwitz Verlag , Stade 1880, p. 75–111 , pp. 641–677 ( digitized version [accessed April 16, 2020] see also: Wikisource ).
• Benno Eide Siebs : Pictures of life from the Elbe and Weser estuaries. A cross-section through eight centuries . Ed .: Men from the Morning Star . Heimatbund at the mouth of the Elbe and Weser Self-published, Bremerhaven 1966, p. 28-30 .
• Manfred Jakubowski-Tiessen : Storm surge 1717. Coping with a natural disaster in the early modern period (=  Ancien Régime, Enlightenment and Revolution . Volume 24 ). R. Oldenbourg Verlag , Munich 1992, ISBN 3-486-55939-7 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed April 16, 2020]).
• Michael Ehrhardt : "A guldten Bandt des Landes." On the history of the dikes in the Altes Land . Ed .: Landschaftsverband Stade (=  series of publications of the regional association of the former duchies of Bremen and Verden . Volume 2 ). Self-published, Stade 2003, ISBN 3-931879-11-9 , p. 140-145 (624 pages).
• Beate Ulich: The Wurster Schimmelreiter Eibe Siade Johans . In: Nordsee-Zeitung . Bremerhaven July 16, 2015 ( digitized on wremen.de [PDF; 1,3 MB ; accessed on April 16, 2020]).
• Nicola Borger-Keweloh: From the life of the yew tree Siade Johans. Allmers Prize Winner Dr. Michael Ehrhardt follows the life of the dichgrave . In: Men from Morgenstern , Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary e. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 841 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven January 2020, p. 3 ( digital version [PDF; 5.0 MB ; accessed on April 16, 2020]).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hein Carstens: Christmas flood 1717. Instead of Christmas mood: Hell on the North Sea coast. (PDF; 67 kB) In: wremer-chronik.de. 2019, accessed April 16, 2020 .  
2. ↑ Manfred Jakubowski-Tiessen: Storm surge 1717. Coping with a natural disaster in the early modern period (=  Ancien Régime, Enlightenment and Revolution . Volume 24 ). R. Oldenbourg Verlag , Munich 1992, ISBN 3-486-55939-7 , p. 193 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed April 16, 2020]).
3. ↑ Originals NLA ST Rep. 40, No. 1415 . Accessed May 21, 2020.