W 1960 roku, a więc
sześćdziesiąt lat temu, Koksownia Kattwyk przygotowała specjalny medal
poświęcony pamięci Williama Lindleya. Na awersie znajduje się biust Williama
Lindleya z napisem:
HAMBURGERGAS (Hamburgski gaz, w górnej części) oraz WILLIAM LINDLEY, ERBAUER DES ERSTEN HAMBURGER
GASWERKS (W. Lindely, budowniczy pierwszej gazowni Hamburga, w dolnej:). Na rewersie umieszczono duży napis: HGW KOKEREI KATTWYK
1960 (Koksownia w Kattwyk, 1960).
Zbiory: Societas Lindleiana
Upamiętnienie dotyczyło otwarcia nowej koksowni w przemysłowej dzielnicy Hamburga otwartej w 1960 roku. Nowa koksownia istniała krótko. Wygaszona w 1981 roku, zburzona został w rok później.
W sierpnia 1844 roku nastąpiła uroczystość wmurowania kamienia węgielnego pod budowę pierwszej koksowni do produkcji gazu w Grasbrook. W rok później nadszedł czas: pierwsze publiczne latarnie gazowe do oświetlenia głównych ulice Hamburga gazem uzyskiwanym z węgla. Jesienią 1845 roku nastąpiła tak duża powódź, że nowa gazowa nie nadawała się do użytku. Potrzebny był nowy budynek. „Przejął go angielski inżynier William Lindley, który był również odpowiedzialny za budowę nowoczesnego zaopatrzenia w wodę w Hamburgu. Latarnie gazowe spłonęły ponownie pod koniec 1846 roku: w liczbie 2020. Jasność ulic sprawiła, że gazownia stała się tak popularna, że jej wizerunek zdobił rewersy kart do gry” – pisze Sasha Disko-Schmidt w tekście Gasversorgung für die moderne Stadt (Zaopatrzenie w gaz nowoczesnego miasta).
Zob. https://geschichtsbuch.hamburg.de/epochen/industrialisierung/gasversorgung-fuer-die-moderne-stadt/
Kattwyk wraz z Altoną znalazł się w obrębie Hamburga w 1937 roku. Obecnie z nawą tą wiąże się niezwykły most zwodzony Kattwykbrücke przerzucony nad południową Łabą, dla ruchu kolejowego i drogowego. Most o długości 290 metrów łączy Moorburg ze wschodnim półwyspem Kattwyk, który należy do wysp Łaby Hohe Schaar i Wilhelmsburga.
Urząd ds. Zabytków i Uniwersytet Nauk Stosowanych wspólnie opracowali aplikację, w której Lindley, jako cyfrowy bohater, komentuje rozwój miasta Hamburga.
William Lindley przemówił
W dniu 7 września 2018 roku, z okazji przypadającej dzień później 210-rocznicy urodzin Williama Lindleya, Uniwersytet Nauk Stosowanych (Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaft, HAW) we współpracy z Instytutem Dziedzictwa Kulturowego w Hamburgu, uruchomił aplikację cyfrową ożywiającą Williama Lindleya.
Głosem niemieckiego aktora William Lindley powitał członków swojej rodziny, przebywających z tej okazji w Hamburgu oraz poinformował użytkowników aplikacji o swoich dokonaniach w tym mieście oraz o tym, jak istotne jest wspólne działanie, wymiana doświadczeń z innymi Europejczykami w kształtowaniu pozytywnych podstaw dla realizacji nowych, idących z duchem czasów projektów.
Niewielką próbkę tej aplikacji zobaczyć mogli wcześniej, bo już 8 stycznia 2018 roku, uczestnicy otwarcia Europejskiego Roku Dziedzictwa Kulturowego. Pokaz odbył się w Wielkiej Sali Ratusza w Hamburgu.
Na fotografii cyfrowa postać Williama Lindleya, który prosi prof. Monikę Grütters, Ministra Stanu ds. Kultury i Mediów, dr. Martina Müncha, Prezesa DNK, dr. Carsten Brosdę, senator ds. Kultury i mediów w Hamburgu, Petra Kammerevert, europosłankę, aby oficjalnie zainaugurowali Europejski Rok Dziedzictwa Kulturowego 2018.
"To commemorate the commencement of the construction of the sewage
system of the city of Warsaw on 20 August 1883, according to the design and
under the direction of engineer W. Lindley and his sons, this stone was laid by
the acting mayor of the city, general lieutenant Starynkiewicz."
A marble plaque with this inscription was embedded in the wall of
the "A" sewer (collector) near the viaduct built in 1959 over the
perimeter line on the axis of Julian Marchlewski Street, now Jana Pawła II. Currently, this plaque
is in the Museum of Waterworks and Sewerage located at the Water Treatment
Station "Filtry", at Koszykowa 81.
The Polish -language plaque has traces of damage from World War II.
Monument of William Lindley
The inscription SIR WILLIAM LINDLEY 1808–1900 on the pedestal of the monument, erroneously was transferring the knighthood of William Heerlein's son to his father.
Senator Vahrenholt spoke of "pioneering engineering work" by Lindley, who had done "groundbreaking work." He also reminded that as a Briton, Lindley had active opponents among the deputies of the City Council, who would rather give his position as an engineer, planner and advisor to Hamburg "to the right forces from the German homeland".
The Senator of the Party also uttered the significant word "sorry" [Das Sorry an Lindley] for the unfair assessment of his contemporaries, as well as for a number of difficulties and unpleasantness, as a result of which the discouraged Lindley left Hamburg.
Among the guests invited to these ceremonies were the descendants of William Lindley's children - Margret Julia (1927-2007), MD, and Alexander Caspar (1934-2021). - Margret Julia (1927-2007), MD, and Alexander Caspar (1934-2021).
Consul Yarnold stressed: “I am proud of the achievements of my compatriot. It was not a romantic job, but without a sewage system, no city would have made the jump from the 19th to the 20th century”.
Here it remains only to add that Lindley and his eldest son William Heerlein had to deal with the opposition in all the cities where they came to work. He was a pioneer in his field on the European continent, and his projects were characterized by foresight and panache, and therefore high costs. The outlays incurred on them returned after many years, and the health effects of modern water supply and sewage systems were visible almost immediately
The final form of the Hamburg monument caused a wave of discussion and a dispute between the offices of the Hanseatic city of Hamburg. The bronze sculpture, the final cost of which amounted to 110,000 marks and was covered by over seventy donors, was assessed by the commission of the cultural office as "artistically worthless". However, the support for the sculptor expressed by the mayor of Hamburg, Hennig Voscherau, prevailed, and the monument was erected. The monument, although controversial as to its form, has already grown into the cityscape, just like the former buildings of William Lindley.
In the memory of his contemporaries, William Lindley is remembered as "the man with sidewhiskers", for historians of technical progress he became "the patriarch of the art of engineering" and "a man whose achievements are a breakthrough in the urban construction of Hamburg".
We regret to inform you that on April 12, 2023, died Ursula Antonia Caspar, senior member of the German branch of the Lindley family (without issue). She was born on June 15, 1931 in Hamburg as the great-granddaughter of William Heerlein Lindley and Fanny Henrietta Getz.
Ursula Caspar, daughter of Beatrix Fanny Caroline (1907-1989) and Eduard Eberhard Caspar (1899-1977), grew up in the family home in Mannheim, where the eldest daughter of William Heerlein Lindley, Julia Fanny Elizabeth (1880-1943), used to invite to perform outstanding contemporary musicians. Her husband Robert Boveri (1872-1934), director of the Brown, Boveri & Co. branch in this city, a world-renowned power company, was a very talented pianist and a lover of classical music.
Ursula and her family came to Mannheim from Hamburg just after Robert's death. The house in Mannheim was destroyed in 1943 in an Allied air raid and the ensuing fire destroyed all the family heirlooms.
The Caspar family survived the World
War II in a village in the Black Forest mountains (Schwarzwald) in south-western Germany. After the war the family
dispersed around the world. The elder brother died in Brazil, the younger one, a
source of all knowledge about the Lindley family, died in Zurich,
Switzerland.
In the early 1950s, Ursula Caspar
went to the UK to visit family and worked part-time to earn her daily-bread and learn English. Later she used her skills teaching English while living in Spain. Eventually, she settled in
Munich, where she took a job at Carl Hanser's publishing house, founded in
1928, one of the few existing medium-sized German publishing houses owned by
the founding family.Ursula Caspar worked there until
retirement.
In this publishing house, she came into contact with Polish culture, when in 1959 the first anthology of Polish poetry by Karl Dedecius (1921-2016), born in Łódź, the greatest translator of Polish literature into German, was published (under the title Lektion der Stille).
In 1980, he became the founder and first director of the Deutsches Polen-Institut (German Institute of Polish Culture) in Darmstadt, an institution that popularizes Polish art in Germany and contacts between the two nations. In 2002, my book The Lindleys.The history of the engineering family, was presented there and the first family reunion of the Lindleys from Great Britain, Germany and Switzerland also took place there.
Ursula celebrating her 90. birthday with friends, on her balcony in Munich
In 1997, while writing the aforementioned history of the Lindley family, the author of this memoir and his wife made a long-term friendship with Ursula Caspar. She visited Warsaw several times to admire the works of her great-grandfather. She willingly participated in family reunions organized in various European cities related to the works of William Heerlein Lindley.
Family reunion in 2006 in Warsaw. Ursula point at the commemorative plaque dedicated to W.H. Lindley on the Warsaw water tower.
Her death was caused by a combination of chronic diseases. She died in the Munich hospital. The funeral ceremony will take place on April 18 at 11.15 am at the Nordfriedhof Cemetery - Ungererstraße 130, Munich.
R. Żelichowski