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George Bähr (15 March 1666 – 16 March 1738) was a German

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Life

George Bähr was born into a poor family in Fürstenwalde (now a part of

Geising Geising is a ''Stadtteil'' (municipal division) of Altenberg in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in Saxony, Germany.

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

), the son of a weaver. The village priest, however, helped pay for his education, and Bähr was able to become a carpenter's apprentice in Lauenstein,

. In 1690, Bähr went to Dresden to start work as a carpenter. His dream was to go to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and see the famous buildings there, so in his spare time he studied

mechanics Mechanics () is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among Physical object, physical objects. Forces applied to objects may result in Displacement (vector), displacements, which are changes of ...

, calling himself both an artist and a mechanic, and designing not only castles and palaces but also sketches of

organs In a multicellular organism, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to a ...

. In 1705, aged 39, Bahr was named Dresden's City Master Carpenter, although he did not even have a master carpenter's certificate. One of Bähr's main goals was to modernise the city's churches. He believed that the existing buildings did no justice to Protestant church services in particular. His first building was the

Loschwitz Church The Loschwitz Church is a baroque church in the Loschwitz district of Dresden. It was the first Church (building), church built by the architect of the Frauenkirche, Dresden, Dresden Frauenkirche, George Bähr. The churchyard, which was used as a ...

, a building in the shape of a stretched-out octagon, completed in 1708. The Dresden ''Waisenhauskirche'' (Orphanage Church) was built around 1710, followed by the ''Dreifaltigkeitskirche'' (Trinity Church) in Schmiedeberg, in the

Ore Mountains The Ore Mountains (, or ; ) lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic (German: ''Keilberg'') at ab ...

, 1713–1716. Between 1719 and 1726 the church in Forchheim was built, as well as more in Königstein, Hohnstein and

Kesselsdorf Kesselsdorf is a village in Saxony, Germany, part of the town of Wilsdruff. It is located close to the Saxon capital city of Dresden. The village is known for the decisive Battle of Kesselsdorf between Austrians and Prussians on December 15, 174 ...

(all in Saxony) and a considerable amount of housing in Dresden. But Bähr is most famous for designing the Frauenkirche in Dresden. He was given the task in 1722; in 1726, the design was approved and work began. From 1730, Bähr became the first in Germany to go by the title of “Architect”. Whilst working on the Frauenkirche, Bähr also oversaw the building of the Dreikönigskirche in Dresden's Neustadt area, designed by

Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann (1662–1736) was a German master builder and architect who helped to rebuild Dresden after the fire of 1685. His most famous work is the Zwinger (Dresden), Zwinger Palace. Life Pöppelmann was born in Herford ...

. George Bähr did not live to see the Frauenkirche completed – he died in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, aged 72, and was buried in the church's vaults. In 2004, a memorial was built to him in the castle at Lauenstein, where he learned his trade.

DNA Analysis

In 2018, researchers from the University of Tuebingen and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena analyzed the genome of George Bähr. They found that he most likely had light skin pigmentation, brown eyes and is of central European origin.

Gallery

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bahr, George 1666 births 1738 deaths People from Altenberg, Saxony 18th-century German architects