Wilhelm Heise (engineer)

Georg Heinrich Wilhelm Heise (born July 27, 1846 in Hamburg , † April 24, 1895 in Tokyo ) was a German engineer ( "civil engineer" ) who worked as O-yatoi gaikokujin ("foreign contractor") from 1871 to 1895 Modernization of Japan contributed.

Live and act

Iron bridge from Nijūbashi to the Tokyo Imperial Palace

Heise was the first son of the lawyer Dr. jur. Wilhelm Leopold Heise (1814–1870) and his wife Therese, b. Bartels (1816–1857), born in Hamburg. Little is known about the first phase of his life.

In March 1871, Heise came as an official adviser to the Meiji -Regierung in the feudal province of Kanazawa , where he took over the task of Kaga-iron works ( KASHU Hyōgo Seitetsushō ) of Kanazawa- han in Kobe build. The works were to be used for the manufacture of iron products and shipbuilding . From the spring of 1876 to the summer of 1877 he represented the local teacher Gottfried Wagener at the Kaisei School ( Kaisei gakkō ) in Tokyo , who had been commissioned by the Japanese government to organize Japan's participation in the Philadelphia World's Fair . Until 1886 he then worked for the Japanese Ministry of Industry, most recently as a lecturer at the Kobe ironworks. During this time he worked out the construction plans for the Nijūbashi iron bridge , which opens up the Tokyo Imperial Palace . He also recommended the installation of central steam heating for the palace of the Tennō . The government awarded him a medal for these achievements. When his contract with the Ministry of Industry ended in 1886, the company Carl Rohde & Co. hired him as head of the company Sasuga & Co., which, among other things, did business with Japanese government agencies for Siemens & Halske and Krupp and Société Cockerill .

In 1895 Heise died of pneumonia. His grave is preserved in Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo .

Web links

Heise, Wilhelm , biography in the portal meiji-portraits.de
Heise, Wilhelm (1846–1895), engineer , biography in the portal das-japanische-gedaechtnis.de

Individual evidence

↑ Toru Takenaka: Siemens in Japan. Journal for Company History, Supplement 91, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-515-06462-1 , p. 54 ( online )

personal data
SURNAME	Heise, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Heise, Georg Heinrich Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German engineer
DATE OF BIRTH	July 27, 1846
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH	April 24, 1895
Place of death	Tokyo

[1] Toru Takenaka: Siemens in Japan. Journal for Company History, Supplement 91, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-515-06462-1 , p. 54 ( online )