Heinrich Gentz

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1810–1811 Heinrich Gentz ​​mausoleum for Queen Luise in the Charlottenburg Palace Park

Heinrich Gentz (* 5. February 1766 in Breslau , † 3. October 1811 in Berlin ; Complete name: Johann Heinrich Gentz ) was a German architect of classicism and Prussian construction officer, Mr .

Life

Gentz ​​was born as the second son of the Breslau mint master Johann Friedrich Gentz ​​(e), who was appointed general mint director to Berlin in 1779 and was friends with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Immanuel Kant , Moses Mendelssohn and Christian Garve . On his mother's side he was a cousin of the Prussian prince educator and minister Jean Pierre Frédéric Ancillon . Through his brother Friedrich von Gentz , publicist and historian in Vienna and closest collaborator of Prince Metternich , and his other brother Ludwig, war councilor in the Prussian Ministry of Finance, he was related by marriage to the architect Friedrich Gilly and friends; the wives of F. Gilly and H. Gentz ​​were also sisters.

Gentz ​​was trained as an architect from 1783 to 1790 at the Berlin Art Academy by Carl von Gontard . From 1790 to 1795 he stayed in Italy, three and a half years of which in Rome and a longer period of time to study Greek architectural remains in Sicily , about which he wrote a detailed travel report. He then worked in Berlin at the Oberhofbauamt, from 1796 also at the Academy of Arts and in 1799 was a co-founder of the Berlin Academy of Architecture , where he taught as a professor for urban architecture . Johann Wolfgang von Goethe obtained his exemption in Berlin in 1801 and brought him to Weimar , where he worked for Duke Carl August at the residential palace and other court buildings in Weimar and Bad Lauchstädt . Gentz ​​came into close contact with Goethe in Weimar and made the acquaintance of Friedrich von Schiller and Christoph Martin Wieland . In 1803 he returned to Berlin and in the same year became a member of the Senate of the Art Academy (from 1805 full member, from 1809 its secretary). As Oberhofbaurat, he was appointed first director of the Berlin Palace Construction Commission in 1810 , and in the same year he was responsible for the establishment of the Prinz-Heinrich-Palais as a university with Wilhelm von Humboldt and Aloys Hirt , whom he already knew from Italy. In addition, he joined the lawless society in Berlin in 1810 . His life and work ended at the age of 45 in Berlin.

plant

Buildings and designs

" Zedernzimmer ", Maria Pawlowna's common room in the Weimar City Palace

Fonts

  • Letters about Sicily. In: New German monthly magazine 1795, pp. 314–345.
  • Description of the decorations intended and carried out for the celebration of homage . In: Jahrbuch der Prussischen Monarchy 2, 1798, pp. 467–476.
  • Description of the new Royal Mint building. In: Collection of useful essays and messages relating to architecture 4, 1800, 1, pp. 14–26 ( digitized version ).
  • Michael Bollé, Karl-Robert Schütze (Ed.): Heinrich Gentz. Journey to Rome and Sicily 1790–1795. Notes and sketches by a Berlin architect. Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-922912-57-5 .

literature

  • Adolph Doebber : Heinrich Gentz, a Berlin builder around 1800. Heymann, Berlin 1916.
  • Michael Bollé: Heinrich Gentz ​​(1766-1811). An investigation into the architecture discussion in Berlin around 1800. Dissertation Freie Universität Berlin 1988.
  • Lothar Hyss: The reconstruction of the Weimar residential palace in the years 1789–1803. With special consideration of the contribution by Heinrich Gentz. Weimar 1996, ISBN 3-932124-12-X .
  • Rolf Bothe: poet, prince and architect. The Weimar residential palace from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 19th century. Ostfildern-Ruit 2000.
  • Alste Horn-Oncken:  Gentz, Johann Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 193 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Cord-Friedrich Berghahn: rebirth of architecture. Heinrich Gentz ​​and Friedrich Gilly as European classicists in Berlin. In: Reports and treatises of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences , Volume 10, 2006, pp. 273–305. ( PDF )
  • Michael Bollé: From feeling to criticism. Heinrich Gentz ​​in Italy. In: Max Kunze (Ed.): Italy in Prussia. Prussia in Italy (= writings of the Winckelmann Society. Vol. 25). Stendal 2006, pp. 102-108.
  • Cord-Friedrich Berghahn: The risk of autonomy. Studies on Karl Philipp Moritz, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Heinrich Gentz, Friedrich Gilly and Ludwig Tieck (= Germanic-Romanic monthly. Supplement 47). Winter, Heidelberg 2012.
  • Michael Bollé: Heinrich Gentz ​​(1766-1811) . In: Uwe Schaper (Ed.): Builders - Engineers - Garden Architects. Berlinische Lebensbilder II (Historical Commission of Berlin), Berlin 2016, pp. 47–63.

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Gentz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Werner: The shooting house. Bertuch-Verlag, accessed on September 15, 2018.
  2. ↑ Jürgen Beyer, Ulrich Reinisch, Reinhard Wegner (eds.): The shooting house in Weimar. An unnoticed masterpiece by Heinrich Gentz. Weimar 2016, ISBN 978-3-89739-832-0 .
  3. ^ Greek and Roman in Berlin Buildings of Classicism Gerhart Rodenwaldt, p.23
  4. ^ Deutsches Kunstblatt publisher Friedrich Eggers in Berlin, second edition, Leipzig 1851 p. 197
  5. ↑ Around 1800: Theory of architecture and architecture criticism in Germany between 1790 and 1810 by Klaus Jan Philipp, pp. 161–162
  6. ↑ Monument database, entry No. 9095951: Prinzessinnenpalais. State Monument Office Berlin.
personal data
SURNAME Gentz, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect and Prussian building officer
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1766
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 1811
Place of death Berlin