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Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a
Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
n architect,
city planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, town ...
and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both neoclassical and neogothic buildings. His most famous buildings are found in and around
Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
.


Biography

Schinkel was born in Neuruppin, Margraviate of Brandenburg. When he was six, his father died in the disastrous Neuruppin fire of 1787. He became a student of architect Friedrich Gilly (1772–1800) (the two became close friends) and his father,
David Gilly David Gilly (7 January 1748 – 5 May 1808) was a German architect and architecture-tutor in Prussia, known as the father of the architect Friedrich Gilly. Life Born in Schwedt, Gilly was the son of a French-born Huguenot immigrant named Jacques ...
, in
Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
. At that time, the architectural taste in Prussia was shaped in neoclassical style, mainly by Carl Gotthard Langhans, the architect of the
Brandenburg Gate The Brandenburg Gate (german: Brandenburger Tor ) is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after restoring the Orangist power by suppressing the Dutch popular unrest. One ...
in Berlin. After returning to Berlin from his first trip to Italy in 1805, he started to earn his living as a painter. When he saw Caspar David Friedrich's painting '' Wanderer above the Sea of Fog'' at the 1810 Berlin art exhibition he decided that he would never reach such mastery of painting and turned to architecture. Working for the stage, in 1816 he created a star-spangled backdrop for the appearance of the "
Königin der Nacht ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that incl ...
" in
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
's opera '' The Magic Flute'', which is even quoted in modern productions of this perennial piece. After Napoleon's defeat, Schinkel oversaw the Prussian Building Commission. In this position, he was not only responsible for reshaping the still relatively unspectacular city of Berlin into a representative capital for Prussia, but also oversaw projects in the expanded Prussian territories from the Rhineland in the west to
Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was na ...
in the east, such as New Altstadt Church. From 1808 to 1817 Schinkel renovated and reconstructed Schloss Rosenau, Coburg, in the Gothic Revival style. He also rebuilt the ruins of Chorin Abbey. At age 60, on 9 October 1841, Schinkel died in Berlin, Province of Brandenburg.


Commemoration

His portrait appeared on the banknote issued by the Reichsbank from 1936 until 1945. Printing ceased in 1945 but the note remained in circulation until the issue of the
Deutsche Mark The Deutsche Mark (; English: ''German mark''), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later the unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it ...
on 21 June 1948.


Style

Schinkel's style, in his most productive period, is defined by a turn to Greek rather than Imperial Roman architecture, an attempt to turn away from the style that was linked to the recent French occupiers. (Thus, he is a noted proponent of the Greek Revival.) He believed that in order to avoid sterility and have a soul, a building must contain elements of the poetic and the past, and have a discourse with them. His most famous extant buildings are found in and around Berlin. These include the Neue Wache (1816–1818), the National Monument for the Liberation Wars (1818–1821), the Schauspielhaus (1819–1821) at the Gendarmenmarkt, which replaced the earlier theatre that was destroyed by fire in 1817, and the Altes Museum on
Museum Island The Museum Island (german: Museumsinsel) is a museum complex on the northern part of the Spree Island in the historic heart of Berlin. It is one of the most visited sights of Germany's capital and one of the most important museum sites in Euro ...
(1823–1830). He also carried out improvements to the Crown Prince's Palace and to
Schloss Charlottenburg Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace) is a Baroque palace in Berlin, located in Charlottenburg, a district of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough. The palace was built at the end of the 17th century and was greatly expanded during ...
. Schinkel was also responsible for the interior decoration of a number of private Berlin residences. Although the buildings themselves have long been destroyed, portions of a stairwell from the Weydinger House were able to be rescued and built into the Nicolaihaus on Brüderstr. and its formal dining hall into the Palais am Festungsgraben. Between 1825–1827, he collaborated with
Carl Theodor Ottmer Carl Theodor Ottmer (19 January 1800, Braunschweig – 22 August 1843, Berlin) was a German architect. Life He was the son of Johann Heinrich Gottfried Ottmer (1767–1814), a surgeon, and his second wife Elisabeth. He began his architectural ...
on designs for the Berliner Singakademie for Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. Since 1952, it has been known as the Maxim Gorki Theatre.Malgorzata Omilanowska Later, Schinkel moved away from classicism altogether, embracing the Neo-Gothic in his Friedrichswerder Church (1824–1831). Schinkel's Bauakademie (1832–1836), his most innovative building, eschewed historicist conventions and seemed to point the way to a clean-lined "modernist" architecture that would become prominent in Germany only toward the beginning of the 20th century. Schinkel, however, is noted as much for his theoretical work and his architectural drafts as for the relatively few buildings that were actually executed to his designs. Some of his merits are best shown in his unexecuted plans for the transformation of the Athenian
Acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...
into a royal palace for the new
Kingdom of Greece The Kingdom of Greece ( grc, label=Katharevousa, Greek, Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος ) was established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constant ...
and for the erection of the Orianda Palace in the
Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...
. These and other designs may be studied in his ''Sammlung architektonischer Entwürfe'' (1820–1837) and his ''Werke der höheren Baukunst'' (1840–1842; 1845–1846). He also designed the famed
Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia e ...
medal of Prussia and later Germany. It has been speculated, however, that due to the difficult political circumstances – French occupation and the dependency on the Prussian king – and his relatively early death, which prevented him from seeing the explosive German industrialization in the second half of the 19th century, he was not able to live up to the true potential exhibited by his sketches.


Paintings

File:Karl Friedrich Schinkel Gotischer Dom am Wasser.tif, ''
Gothic Cathedral by a River ''Gothic Cathedral by a River'' (German - ''Gotischer Dom am Wasser'') is an 1813 painting by German artist and architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. It shows an imaginary Gothic architecture, Gothic cathedral on an island in a river - Schinkel late ...
'', 1813 File:1813 Schinkel Blick auf den Mont Blanc anagoria.JPG, ''View of Mont Blanc'', 1813 File:Karl Friedrich Schinkel - Der Morgen - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Morning'', 1813 File:Karl Friedrich Schinkel - Stage set for Mozart's Magic Flute - WGA21001.jpg, Karl Friedrich Schinkel's stage set for Mozart's ''Magic Flute'', 1815 File:1815 Schinkel Mittelalterliche Stadt an einem Fluss anagoria.JPG, '' Medieval City on a River'', 1815 File:Karl Friedrich Schinkel - The Gate in the Rocks - WGA20999.jpg, ''Rock Arch'', 1818 File:Karl Friedrich Schinkel - Uranus and the Dance of the Stars.jpg, ''Uranus and the Dance of the Stars'', 1834 File:Karl Friedrich Schinkel Allegorie auf Beuth, den Pegasus reitend, 1837.tif, Christian Peter Wilhelm Beuth, 1837 (Allegory of Prussia's industrial renewal)


Buildings

File:Konzerths 3a.jpg, Konzerthaus, Berlin File:Berlin altes Museum und Lustgarten um 1900.jpg, Altes Museum File:Berlin - Friedrichswerdersche Kirche, 2006 1.jpg, Friedrichswerdersche Kirche File:Pc 150036 Nikolaikirche.jpg, Potsdam Nikolaikirche File:Alexander Nevsky chapel, Peterhof, Schinkel.JPG, Alexander Nevsky chapel, Peterhof, Russia File:Schloss Stolzenfels 01 Koblenz 2015.jpg, Schloss Stolzenfels


See also

*
Schinkelplatz Schinkelplatz is a square in Berlin, Germany, named after Karl Friedrich Schinkel. On one side of the square stands the Bauakademie, under wraps waiting to be rebuilt, and on the other, the neo-Gothic Friedrichswerder Church. In front of both b ...
*
Statue of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Berlin The statue of Karl Friedrich Schinkel is a bronze sculpture installed at Schinkelplatz in Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's ...


References


Citations


General source

* Jörg Trempler: ''Schinkels Motive''. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin, 2007, . * Christoph Werner: ''Schloss am Strom. Die Geschichte vom Leben und Sterben des Baumeisters Karl Friedrich Schinkel''. Bertuch-Verlag, Weimar 2004, . * Christoph Werner: ''Castle by the River: The Life and Death of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Painter and Master Builder: A Novel''. Tredition, Hamburg, 2020, . * Christoph von Wolzogen: ''Karl Friedrich Schinkel: Unter dem bestirnten Himmel''. Biographie. Edition Fichter, Frankfurt, 2016, . * John Zukowsky (ed.): ''Karl Friedrich Schinkel 1781–1841: The Drama of Architecture''. With essays by Kurt W. Forster and Wolfgang Pehnt, 2020
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.


External links

* * Prefatory essay from ''Collection of Architectural Designs including those designs which have been executed and objects whose execution was intended by Karl Friedrich Schinkel'' (Chicago: Exedra Books Incorporated, 1981). Also used as a reference. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schinkel, Karl Friedrich Karl Friedrich Schinkel 1781 births 1841 deaths 19th-century architects 19th-century German architects German ecclesiastical architects German neoclassical painters Greek Revival architects German neoclassical architects People from Neuruppin People from the Margraviate of Brandenburg