Johann Gottfried Tulla

Johann Gottfried Tulla ( born March 20, 1770 in Karlsruhe, † March 27, 1828 in Paris) was a Baden engineer, who performed the straightening of the Rhine in the 19th century. His actions gave the Upper Rhine an entirely new look. Such as the river bed was reduced to 200-250 m, straightened and recessed built dam installations and enhances the shape. Thus, the settlement areas should ( inter alia, the "swamp fever " called malaria) are protected from frequent flooding and gained new settlement areas, improved navigability and the rampant diseases pushed back.

Life and work

Tulla was awarded from 1792 to 1794 with Karl Christian von Langsdorf an education. In 1795 he started in Freiberg in Saxony, to study chemistry and mineralogy. He was then taken in Baden in the state service. In 1801, followed by further training in Paris, but a year later ended when he was called back to Karlsruhe. There he was in 1803 appointed captain. From 1807, he worked with in the regulation of Linth in Switzerland. Also in 1807 he was a founder of the Engineering School, the predecessor of the University of Karlsruhe and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology was. He was promoted several times in the subsequent years, the 1809 and 1814 Major to Lieutenant Colonel. In 1817 he was appointed head of the Chief Directorate of the water and road construction. In this role he drew up the plans for use in the years 1817-42 the Dreisamstadion was straightened in Freiburg and so many new agricultural land made ​​available. His greatest feat of engineering were the plans for the straightening of the Rhine, which he introduced in 1809. He also had the political power of persuasion to convince the riparian states of the benefits.

Tulla died from the effects of malaria. He was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery in Paris. His grave stone shows the so-called Altriper Eck, one of the most technically difficult sections of the straightening of the Rhine near the village of Palatine Altrip.

Honors

In France, Tulla in 1827 appointed an Officer of the Legion of Honour. Many cities and towns along the Rhine named streets after him, also carry several schools and halls the name Tulla. A memorial stone, the Tulladenkmal, stands on the Rhine near Karlsruhe, Germany between the Rhine harbor and Maxau. In Breisach was built in 1874 in honor of Tulla on the site of the former castle and palace complex on the north side of the mountain Munster Tullaturm.

Portrait of Johann Gottfried Tulla on Tullaturm in Breisach

Memory of Tulla on the neighborhood fountain of Ludwigshafen

Tulla Monument on the Rhine near Karlsruhe

Works

• Charter on the Grand Duchy of Baden (1812; digitized )
• The principles on which the Rhine construction work would be-ing to lead the future (1812 )
• About the rectification of the Rhine, from its exit from Switzerland until his entry into the Grand Duchy of Hesse (1825; digitized: PDF, 39 MB)