Karl Friedrich Schinkel

Karl Friedrich Schinkel (born the March 13rd 1781 with Neuruppin (Brandebourg) - deceased the October 9th 1841 with Berlin) is a painter and especially a Prussian Architecte , which deeply marked the Néoclassicisme in Prussia.

Life

At the six years age, Schinkel loses his/her father in a fire with Neuruppin. In 1798, it leaves the college and leaves to Berlin where he becomes the pupil and a close friend of Friedrich Gilly and of his/her father David. In 1803, it undertakes its first voyage in Italy. On its return to Berlin, the city is occupied by the troops of Napoleon. It then starts to work as a painter. After the defeat of the France, Schinkel is responsible for the Prussian cabinet of construction starting from 1815. Its function consists in transforming Berlin into a capital representative of Prussia and carrying out various projects through all the Prussian territory of the the Rhineland in the west until Königsberg in the east.

Work

The style of Schinkel during its most productive time is marked by a return to the traditional Greek architecture, an attempt to perhaps deviate from the Roman style of the French occupants. Its most famous buildings are in Berlin and in its neighborhoods. Among those, one can note in Berlin the Schauspielhaus (1819 - 1821) which replaces the old theater destroyed following a fire on the Gendarmenmarkt and the Alte Museum (see photo) on the island with the museums (1823 - 1830).

The importance of Schinkel does not lie only in its architectural achievements but also in its theoretical work. Its ideas appear clearly in certain projects not carried out like the transformation of the Acropolis into Palais Royal or aménagment of Orianda Palate into the Crimea. These plans of others can be studied in its Sammlung architektonischer Entwürfe (collection of architectural outlines of 1820 with 1837) and in its Werke DER höheren Baukunst (1840 - 1842; 1845 - 1846).

Some think that the political circumstances (French occupation and dependence with respect to unable Prussian kings) prevented Schinkel from deploying all its potential and the talent which its diagrams let predict.

Beside its many buildings, Schinkel carried out also works as a painter, creator of theatrical decorations and an interior designer. He also officiated as an expert (he submitted several reports/ratios for the cathedral of Cologne: the Kölner Dom ).


Achievements

Important buildings and constructions

  • 1800, the Temple of Pomona on the Pfingstberg mount with Potsdam
  • 1818, the Neue Wache ( New Guard ) with Berlin
  • 1818, Schauspielhaus in Berlin on Gendarmenmarkt
  • 1824, Neues Museum in Berlin (now called le" Altes Museum ")
  • 1825, the Friedrich-Werdersche church in Berlin and the Schöneberg church close to Aachen
  • 1830, Nikolaikirche (church Saint Nicolas) with Potsdam
  • 1831, “Altstädtische Hauptwache” with Dresden
  • 1832, the “Bauakademie” (academy of construction) in Berlin
  • 1832, the town hall of Kolberg
  • 1833, Roman baths of Potsdam
  • 1834, the Babelsberg castle in Potsdam
  • 1834, churches of Alt-Moabit, Wedding and Gesundbrunnen (districts of Berlin)

Paintings

One can in particular see his paintings in several museums of Berlin:

Others

  • Schinkel with carried out the final drawing of the Cross of iron (military decoration) established by the king Frederic-Guillaume III of Prussia in 1813 and which is always the symbol of the current German army (Bundeswehr).

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