The Old Academy (German: ''Alte Akademie''), also called Wilhelminum, is a building in the center of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Dating from the 16th century, it has a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

facade and four inner courtyards.

History

William V, Duke of Bavaria William V (29 September 1548 – 7 February 1626), called ''the Pious'', (German: ''Wilhelm V., der Fromme, Herzog von Bayern'') was Duke of Bavaria from 1579 to 1597. Education and early life William V was born in Landshut, the son of Alber ...

ordered the construction of a building for the college and the school of the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

next to his St. Michael's Church. The college was established 1583–1590. It is unclear who designed the building, but it was probably as

Friedrich Sustris Friedrich Sustris (c. 1540, in Padua – 1599, in Munich) was an Italian-Dutch painter, decorator and architect. He was a son of the artist Lambert Sustris, who worked in Italy. Sustris got his training from his father Lambert in Venice and Padu ...

. After the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1773 the building became a cantonment for cadets of the army. From 1783 to 1826, it housed the Court Library and Archives, and then a school of painting and sculpture (hence the designation "Academy"). From 1826 to 1840, the

Ludwig Maximilian University The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

had its temporary domicile in the building. After severe destruction during the Second World War (1944) it was rebuilt by Josef Wiedemann to house the ''Bavarian Statistical Office''.

History

See also