August Essenwein (architect)
August Ottmar (Knight of) Essenwein (born November 2, 1831 in Karlsruhe ; † October 13, 1892 in Nuremberg ) was an architect , building historian and art writer; from 1866 he was director (first director) of the Germanisches Museum, which was later renamed the Germanisches Nationalmuseum .
Life
From 1847 to 1852 August Essenwein attended the Polytechnic in Karlsruhe, today's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology , where he became a member of the Germania fraternity (now Teutonia ). He then made long study trips to Berlin, Cologne, Vienna and Paris. From 1853 to 1856 he worked as an architect in Karlsruhe. During this time, the work of North Germany's brick building in the Middle Ages, illustrated with 36 panels .
In 1856 he moved to Vienna and joined the state railroad. In addition, he devoted himself to art historical studies; he wrote several larger essays for the communications of the kk central commission etc. , made architectural designs of various kinds, in which he especially cultivated the Romanesque style, and was also active in the art industry. In 1864 he was elected to the municipal building officer in Graz and one year later appointed professor at the technical university there; here in 1867 he published, among other things, the volume The medieval art monuments of the city of Krakow .
In 1866 he was appointed to Nuremberg as the first director of the Germanisches Museum (today Germanisches Nationalmuseum ), where he developed a very lively activity, as a result of which the institution was significantly expanded in a short time and gained a high reputation. He shifted the focus of the museum from a source repertory to an art and cultural history collection. He published, partly alone, partly with August von Eye , several small works on the museum, then special catalogs on some departments of the collection, with sources on the history of firearms and the woodcuts of the 14th and 15th centuries in the Germanic Museum, two large copper works, and many smaller essays in the gazette for customers of the German past . In addition, as a monument conservator, he made drafts for restoration work , e.g. B. the Bonn Minster , to wall paintings , glass paintings , organs (z. B. for the Church of St. Lorenz in Nuremberg), to the entire equipment of churches, z. B. Great St. Martin in Cologne, the execution of which he also monitored in every detail.
Furthermore, the expansion of the Carthusian monastery in Nuremberg , the seat of the Germanic Museum, is his work.
[This article is mainly based on the article from Meyer's Konversationslexikon from 1888/90.]
His grave is in the Nuremberg Johannisfriedhof .
Works
buildings
- Restoration of the church in Lébény ( West Hungary ), inside: 1862–1865, outside: 1872–1879
- Various conversions and extensions for the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg
- Restoration of the Frauenkirche in Nuremberg, since 1878
- New town hall in Nuremberg ( Essenwein-Bau ) with town hall tower (Rathausgasse / Fünferplatz / Theresienstraße), 1885–1889 (destroyed 1944/45, remnants demolished in 1951 for altered reconstruction and redesign of the square)
Fonts (selection)
In addition to numerous articles in magazines and various catalogs, Essenwein wrote the following works:
- North Germany's Back-Steinbau in the Middle Ages Karlsruhe undated (1855-1856) ( digitized version )
- The development of the pillar and vault system in church architecture from the beginning of the Middle Ages to the end of the XIII. Century. In: Yearbook of the emperors. royal Central Commission for Research and Conservation of Architectural Monuments 3, 1859. 1–104.
- The Chapel of Salvation. John the Baptist, called Capella Speciosa zu Klosterneuburg. In: Reports and Mittheilungen des Alterthums-Verein zu Wien 5, 1861, pp. 1-44.
- The medieval art monuments of the city of Krakow , Nuremberg 1867
- Sources on the history of firearms in Leipzig, 1872–1877 ( digitized images )
- Art and cultural historical monuments of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum , Nuremberg 1877
- The woodcuts of the 14th and 15th centuries in the Germanic Museum
- Picture atlas on cultural history; Middle Ages , Leipzig 1884
- Contributions to the architecture manual
literature
- Constantin von Wurzbach : food wine, A. . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 24th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1872, p. 405 ( digitized version ).
- Food wine . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 5, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 858.
- Hans Boesch: Essenwein, August Ottmar . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 48, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1904, pp. 432-434.
- Josef Kramny: Register for the yearbook 1856-1861 and for the communications 1856-1902 of the kk Central Commission for Art and Historical Monuments. I. List of authors. Vienna 1909, p. 9 ( Essays by Essenwein in these journals) (PDF; 5.1 MB)
- Günther Schiedlausky: Essenwein, August Ottmar Ritter von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 657 ( digitized version ).
- August Ottmar (Ritter von) Essenwein , Art. In The scientific officials , in: Bernward Deneke and Rainer Kahsnitz (Hrsg.): Das Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Nuremberg 1852–1977. Contributions to his history , Munich / Berlin 1978, 1118–1119 (as well as passim in this volume; on the GNM buildings pp. 374–444).
- Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume II: Artists. Winter, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8253-6813-5 , pp. 178-181.
Web links
- Literature by and about August Essenwein in the catalog of the German National Library
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Essenwein, August |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Essenwein, August Ottmar Ritter von |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German architect, building historian and museum director |
DATE OF BIRTH | November 2, 1831 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Karlsruhe |
DATE OF DEATH | October 13, 1892 |
Place of death | Nuremberg |