Christian Gottlieb Cantian

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Cantian on the painting below by Johann Erdmann Hummel

(Johann) Christian Gottlieb Cantian (born June 23, 1794 in Berlin ; † April 11, 1866 there ) was a German stonemason and master builder . His greatest achievement was the manufacture and transport of the large granite bowl in the pleasure garden, which weighed around 75 tons. Furthermore, the production of the red granite base and the pillared hall of the Victory Column in Berlin is attributed to him.

Life

Christian Gottlieb Cantian was trained as a stonemason in his father's workshop in Bunzlau . Before participating in the Wars of Liberation , he was a student at the Berlin Building Academy between 1810 and 1813 . In 1814 he was first referred to as an architect. He graduated as a construction manager in 1818 and as a master builder in 1822. From 1822 to 1832 he worked alongside Langerhans as an unpaid building councilor in Berlin. On July 12, 1832, the city awarded him the honorary title of city ​​elder after he had resigned from the city council at his own request. In 1835 he became Kgl. Master builder and building inspector in 1842. In 1844 Cantian was appointed building officer in recognition of his honorary services.

The father's workshop initially went to the brother. When he died in 1826, Gottlieb Cantian took over the company. Since he was not a member of the Berlin stonemasons 'guild, he regarded the granite bowl in the Lustgarten as his masterpiece and applied for membership in the Berlin stonemasons and stone sculptors' guild on July 17, 1832. He stated that he had trained apprentices as a member of the "combined bricklayers and stonemasons in Bunzlau " and that no masterpiece was required there, but that "he believed that he had the proof of special artistry through the works set up in this city" . The guild took its time and only agreed to "incorporate Mr. Cantian" on January 19, 1835, 2½ years after submitting the application and 2½ months after the handover of the large granite bowl. “In June 1834 - probably as a result of the disputes presumed above about Cantian's admission to the Berlin guild - a new book was created. No longer a log book that gives an account of meetings held, apprentice contracts, journeyman's and master's exams, but an apprentice book, retroactively transferred from the old book to July 10, 1830 and kept until June 1869. “In 1853, the Berlin guild entered new statute, in which the prerequisite for admission to the guild "the ability to independently operate the stonecutter" was named. That only changed in June 1869 with the establishment of the Berlin-Potsdamer stonemason trade.

The name of Cantian is associated with numerous stone carvings on famous Berlin monumental buildings of this time.

The "spiritual Berlin" of that time came and went in Cantian's house. The sculptor professors Carl and Ludwig Wichmann were very close to him ; also Franz Ludwig Catel , Julius Schoppe , Johann Erdmann Hummel , Nicolovius, Karl Bötticher , Karl Friedrich Klöden , Reichhelm , August, Gustav Parthey, Eduard Knoblauch , Johann August Zeune and Karl Ludwig von Le Coq .

From 1842 to 1859 he was a city councilor for Berlin.

Tomb

Tomb

He was buried in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof in Berlin-Mitte . The monumental family grave in the form of an old Roman sarcophagus was created based on a design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel . On the sarcophagus there is a wreath with lowered torches and it is surrounded by three walls bordered by pillars. Granite crosses are set in the pillars, which come from the large granite bowl. The urn of his son Ernst Cantian (1822–1889) is also located in the tomb.

The grave of honor is located in the CAL department, G4.

progeny

Cantian had a son Ernst Cantian, born in 1822, who died in Padua in 1889. Sons-in-law were the engineer Johann Wilhelm Schwedler , inventor of the Schwedlerchen dome (used e.g. on the New Synagogue ) and the railroad builder Eduard Koch .

Works

The installation of Cantian's granite bowl in the Berlin Lustgarten, painting by Johann Erdmann Hummel

Bowls from Cantian

Cantian exhibited several bowls at the Berlin Academy exhibitions from 1826 to 1830, and sculptures of the bowls were shown from 1832 to 1836. The term patriotic used by Cantian for granite bowls corresponded to the zeitgeist of the time of national symbol, cult and myth. Below is a list of bowls by Cantian that he showed at Academy exhibitions under the heading of art and industrial work from 1826 to 1830, all of which were machine-ground and polished.

  • In 1826 Cantian exhibited a total of three bowls, a circular bowl made of the granite pieces found in the Kurmark with a diameter of 6  feet (1.88 meters), a small bowl from Verde-Antico and another from Giallo-Antico .
  • In 1828 a bowl from Verde Antico was exhibited based on a drawing by Schinkel from the stonemason workshop of the building inspector Cantian .
  • In 1830 two bowls with a higher technical and design level of difficulty were shown. One bowl 5 feet and 11  inches (1.86 meters) in diameter, 4 feet and 3 inches (1.33 meters) high had lion heads sculpted on the edge of the pool and another 3 feet and 4 inches (1.05 meters) in diameter and also three feet and four inches high was of crimson granite found in the Uckermark . This bowl had handles made of granite. Both bowls were made from one piece with lion heads or handles.

In the exhibition catalogs from 1832 to 1836, several bowl works were shown under the heading of sculptures .

  • In 1832, “C. Cantian, building inspector, Hinter dem Bauhof 2., several works from patriotic debris ”. There are five sculptures, including one that is “owned by S. Maj. The King”. The illustration of the king's bowl, 3 feet and 6 inches (1.10 meters) in diameter, shows a bowl with a gneiss-like structure resting on one foot and resting on three bronze lion's feet. The Berlin ciseleur Fischer and Professor Wichmann worked on the bronze details of this bowl . Another granite bowl with large feldspars and bluish quartz crystals 6 feet (1.88 meters) in diameter can be found in the catalog. Two more bowls are also illustrated.
  • In 1834 two granite bowls, each 3 feet (0.94 meters) in diameter and also 3 feet high, were shown, one of which has a columnar base made of reddish gneiss-like granite and a bronze decoration by Theodor Kalide on the base , the other is also decorated by Kalide.
  • In 1836, a vase and table top made of red or light red patriotic granite are shown in the catalog.

Others

As close as possible to the granite bowl at the Lustgarten, where the workshops were also located, a square and a street on Museum Island were named after him in 1839. These were later built over by the Pergamon Museum . In 1903, a residential street in the Prenzlauer Berg district was given the same name to compensate for the deedication in favor of the museum expansion . There was also a Cantianplatz there since 1876, but it was closed again. On the other hand, the geologist and contemporary Leopold von Buch , who lives in Berlin, found clearly critical words about the destruction of Germany's largest boulder:

“These venerable monuments share the fate of the world. Sexes are displaced by sexes, and each of them pulls some document from the prehistoric world with it into the abyss. On the capitals of the Parthenon, the soldiers of the Pasha cook their pillaw. Pope Urban VIII Barberini built the canopy of St. Peter from the roof of the Pantheon; what the barbarians did not, the Barberini did. A giant bowl is made from the Markgrafenstein near Rauen. "

- Leopold von Buch

literature

  • Sibylle Einholz : The large granite bowl in the pleasure garden. On the importance of a Berlin solitaire. In: The Bear of Berlin . Yearbook of the History Association for Berlin, 1997, p. 49.
  • Ludwig Scherhag: The stonemason and his material. Natural stone work in Germany. Example Berlin . Edited by the Federal Association of German Stonemasons, Stone and Wood Sculptors (exhibition catalog). Ebner, Ulm 1978, p. 42.

Web links

Commons : Christian Gottlieb Cantian  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Illustration of Cantian at Pentecost 1827 in front of the Großer Markgrafenstein (bottom right with cylinder)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Alfred Etzold, Wolfgang Türk: The Dorotheenstädtische Friedhof. The burial places on Berlin's Chausseestrasse . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 978-3-86153-261-3 , p. 53 ff.
  2. ↑ a b Sibylle Einholz : The large granite bowl in the pleasure garden. On the importance of a Berlin solitaire. In: The Bear of Berlin . Yearbook of the History Association for Berlin, 1997, p. 49.
  3. ↑ Ludwig Scherhag: The stone mason and his material. Natural stone work in Germany. Example Berlin . Edited by the Federal Association of German Stonemasons, Stone and Wood Sculptors (exhibition catalog). Ebner, Ulm 1978, p. 42.
  4. ↑ Illustration: Stabadium and red granite bowl with lion heads
  5. ↑ Exhibition catalogs of the Academy exhibitions from 1826 to 1832. Quoted from Einholz: Jahrbuch 1997, p. 59, note 21 (see literature)
  6. ^ Cantianstrasse . In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
  7. ^ Cantianstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  8. ↑ Cantianplatz . In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
  9. ↑ Von Buch, Leopold Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. 4, p. 1041, Raw stones from the Berlin area,
personal data
SURNAME Cantian, Christian Gottlieb
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cantian, Johann Gottlieb Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German stonemason and master builder
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1794
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 1866
Place of death Berlin