Albert Brahms (October 24, 1692 – August 3, 1758) was a Frisian dike judge, an elected community leader responsible for maintaining the dikes that protected the area against the Wadden Sea, and a pioneer of hydraulic engineering.
Brahms was born on October 24, 1692, in Sanderahm, Sande, in what is now the Friesland district of Lower Saxony, Germany.
[1] He was elected as dike judge in 1718, after the disastrous Christmas flood of 1717, which had caused many deaths, and he retained the position until 1752.
[3] In his position as dike judge, Brahms arranged for the establishment of physical benchmarks, located on stable ground near the coast, for use in measuring tide levels and storm surges.
[1] Niemeyer, Eiben & Rohde (1996) write that his book was "unique" and "far ahead of his contemporaries", noting that Brahms "already recognized nearly all key problems" as they are now understood "and delivered solutions which still must be regarded as pathbreaking".