Sören Biörn

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Sören Biörn (born September 18, 1744 in Astrup near Ribe , Duchy of Schleswig , † October 26, 1819 in Danzig , West Prussia ) was a Prussian civil servant of Danish origin . At the Gdańsk Bay he developed a method of fortifying coastal dunes .

background

When Russian troops cut down the dune forests on the spits to extract tar around 1734 , northern storms blew entire sections of the dunes into the Fresh Lagoon . Frozen estuaries of the rivers and inland water masses forced the situation worse. Most of all, the inhabitants of these regions feared the breakthrough in dunes, the direct connection between the Baltic Sea and the lagoon. This is how the Pillauer Tief was created in 1497 . Around 1765, the first attempts to bind the drift sand with sown beach grass had failed . In 1840 the Vistula broke through the dunes of the Danzig Spit near Neufähr .

Life

Biörn's parents were the mayor Peter Biörn and his wife Ancke Iversdatter Lorenzen. Both died early. Interested in geography, natural history and agriculture, Sören received private lessons from the preacher in Astrup. After a brief commercial training in Copenhagen, he went to Danzig in 1768, to the office of the merchant Grube, which was trading with the Kingdom of Denmark . He started his own business in 1770 and married Susanna Konstantia Gebhardt, daughter of the preacher in Weichselmünde , in 1771 .

Coastal protection in Gdansk

In 1778 he was a restaurateur and farmer in Gischkau . Later he went to Danzig and took on the bare coastal dunes and their consequences. Activities for the city council gave him economic security, from 1784 as an agent in the Prussian Neufahrwasser and in 1791 as an inspector of the crane . He explored the area and its vegetation in great detail . For four years he dealt with dune protection in Jutland . After observations from his Danish homeland and following the teachings of Johann Daniel Titius in Wittenberg and Erik Nissen Viborg in Copenhagen, in 1795 he tried to plant a piece of beach cane near the Weichselmünde fortress . Sedge and shrubbery came on and bound the drifting sand. He reported on the successes to the Danzig magistrate. In 1796 he proposed in a memorandum to the royal government in Marienwerder that the foreland and fore dune be filled with wild rye , oats, etc. Ä. To plant in order to prevent the growth and migration of the main dune. Assigned by the government to continue his efforts, he set up a tree nursery in a swampy area . He raised plants, bushes and trees. His first major attempt on a 30- acre site near Weichselmünde was successful. Creeping willows and barberries protected the fresh plantations. The population in the small villages was initially hostile to Biörn's efforts and refused help; Biörn was not deterred, however. In 1798 the German national newspaper said:

“Our restless Biörn, because he is an attentive observer of nature, makes more and more experiences and tries to gain more and more perfection from the work he has begun. The piece, which he planted in the spring and autumn of 1797, is 300 rods in length. Besides a lot of sand plants there is already an avenue of 600 pollard willows, maples, spruces, ash trees, birches, ellers, and they seem to have turned the arid area into a garden and everything grew so vigorously that whenever I saw the young plants, I was heartily happy about the good progress of a cause that is of so great use to posterity. "

- National newspaper of the Germans

He transplanted locust trees, grown from seeds in a wooded area, to the dunes when they reached a certain size. He used his garden in the hayloft and other tree nurseries that he had created in the meantime to test other plants and to grow cuttings . There was no lack of public recognition. The dunes on the Curonian Spit began to be fortified according to Biörn's experience and recommendations. A commission headed by Friedrich Leopold von Schrötter - in Berlin Minister for East Prussia - examined Biörn's results in 1798. According to their order, the country should first be saved where the greatest danger threatened. Biörn sent drawings and plans, had fences set up in zigzags and the sand dunes were filled with shrub fences at intervals of 16–20 feet . Millions of sand plants and thousands of trees were planted in the spaces between 300 rods long and 120 rods wide. The hurricane of 9/10 December 1797 left no noticeable damage. Beginning in Danzig, Biörn had planted a stretch of two miles by 1801 . The royal government appointed him in 1798 as "Ober-Plantagen-Inspektor" (head plantation inspector) and before 1803 as chamber commissioner .

Memel

Sören Biörn inspected the dunes as far as Memel . There, the harbor was threatened with silting up. Recently discovered documents prove Biörn's activities in Memel between June 9, 1802 and April 14, 1804. For the city he stipulated that "all elevations through fences and plantings to cover the inner land had to be made very close to the lower bank" . In a report dated June 9, 1802, he recommended the further application of his method: heightening of the terrain by several fences one behind the other to trap sand and planting in the spaces in between. He received the contract on September 27, 1802 and began work at Memel. In a further report of May 14, 1803, he specified his proposals for securing the port of Memel . He estimated the cost of materials, plants and labor at 6,000 thalers . On August 31, 1803 he reported to the chief forester Roth Jester about the positive results of an inspection trip on September 27, 1802. In a letter of August 31, 1803, he recommended entrusting the planned work to his pupil Neith. As a port construction inspector, he continued the work for the provincial government.

Life's work

Long breaks - at the time of the Republic of Danzig after the Fourth Coalition War  - almost ruined Biörn's work. Nevertheless, he was able to continue his work on the spits until his death. When he died in 1819 at the age of 76, the plantings continued. Securing the coastal dunes of the Baltic Sea employed thousands of people in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Hayloft

In addition to his tree nurseries, Biörn also built a public garden on the Großer Heidsee near Heubude. It consisted of an animal park , a bird house with exotic birds, a botanical garden and a greenhouse with a heated water basin. He displayed a collection of corals and minerals as well as a large collection of shells in a grotto. The ethnographic exhibits included an Inuit hut with two leather-clad wooden statues of their residents and a bench made of whale ribs . Before his death, he handed the exhibits over to the Natural Research Society . His son Sören Björn (1777–1846) extended the summer vacation along the shores of the lake. This included a dock for rowing boats on the west bank and an inn. In 1846 Julius Specht bought the facility and expanded the Spechts-Établissement to become the first health resort at the excursion site.

Honors

The Mecklenburgische Landwirthschafts-Gesellschaft elected him an honorary member in 1802 and awarded him their diploma.

Erbwalter

Biörn's second son became a plantation inspector for the Pomeranian coast . The dune construction inspector GCA Krause continued the work in West Prussia . Two generations after Sören Biörn, Wilhelm Franz Epha was the next major fastener of the shifting dunes on the spits.

Works

  • Heckingborn a play in five acts / by PA Heiberg , translated from Danish . - Troschel, Danzig, 1795.
  • Remarks about the previous and present situation and condition of the Prussian and Danzig south Baltic banks as well as about the origin of the Nehrung peninsulas and about the origin of the amber which is found on these banks . Troschel, Danzig 1803.
  • Overview of the most advantageous treatment and use of the Prussian willow species . Troschel, Danzig 1804.
  • Rzut oka na pożytki z przyzwoitego traktowania wierzb pruskich wynikające przez P. król prusk . Ferd. Troszela, Gdańsk 1804.
  • About the most advantageous treatment method for insemination and planting of the pines on poor, especially on very sandy soil, sand clods and sand dunes, as the only one after previous planting, permanent protection of the Nehrung shores . Troschel, Danzig 1807.
  • Remarks on the previous and present situation and condition of the Prussian and Danzig south Baltic banks… . Troschel, Danzig 1808.

literature

  • [Ernst Ferdinand] Klinsmann: The spit and its first planter Sören Biörn . Prussische Provinzial-Blätter 23 (1840), pp. 385-408. Digitized
  • Wolfgang Reske: Sören Biörn and the first successful dune planting on the spit . Königsberger Bürgerbrief 87 (2016), pp. 41–44.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Biörn's birthplace Astrup is now part of Brøns Sogn .
  2. ↑ Almost 15 kilometers.
  3. ↑ As the crow flies, it is 219 km from Gdańsk to Klaipėda. The land route along the Danzig Spit, the Samland coast and the Curonian Spit amounts to a good 300 km.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Reske 2016
  2. ↑ a b Björn, Sören (German biography)
  3. ↑ Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: Stogi . In: Gedanopedia (Polish, accessed February 11, 2020).
personal data
SURNAME Biörn, Sören
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Björn, Sören; Bjørn, Søren (Danish spelling); Beer, Sewer (Polish spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian dune construction inspector in West and East Prussia
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1744
PLACE OF BIRTH Astrup near Ribe , Duchy of Schleswig
DATE OF DEATH October 26, 1819
Place of death Danzig , West Prussia