Christian Richter (master builder)

Christian Richter (* around 1625 ; † August 19, 1684 in Leipzig ) was the first important architect and builder of the Leipzig Baroque .

Act

The origin of the Leipzig architect, master builder and master mason Christian Richter is not known. He was first mentioned as a journeyman in 1650. The Leipzig Masons' Guild led him as a master from 1660 and from 1668 to 1684 he officiated in the trade fair city as a council mason.

In 1662, Christian Richter created the first baroque-style town house in Leipzig with the new building at Hainstraße 3 (since 1875 Webers Hof ), which was a model for town house construction in the city until 1700. Then Johann Gregor Fuchs (1650–1715) led the Leipzig Baroque to further bloom. For a long time, Richter was also considered the architect of the Old Trading Exchange on the Naschmarkt . Today, however, experts only limit their work to the construction work.

Weber's court was extended by two floors in 1847 and largely stripped of its baroque elements. During the restoration from 1995 to 1997 after war damage and deterioration during the GDR era, the facade was restored to its condition from 1662. This was possible because the Leipzig City Archives have Richter's sketchbook from 1660 to 1666, which contains 21 hand-drawn sketches, documents the career of the originally conservative Richter from the Renaissance to the Baroque and also refers to Hainstraße 3.

Christian Richter earned a special and lasting merit with the training of excellent craftsmen and masters, such as his nephew George Richter the Elder, his great-nephew George Richter the Younger, George Rotzsch - who all followed him in the office of master mason -, the master carpenter Christian Schmidt and the master mason Nikolaus Rempe, who shaped the Leipzig Baroque with their work.

It has not yet been proven whether there is a suspected relationship to the Thuringian architect family Richter. Among the Thuringian judges there was also a Christian (1665–1722), son of Johann Moritz the Elder (1620–1667), with whom the Leipziger should not be confused.

Buildings (selection)

Note: The dates only reflect the periods of time when Christian Richter worked on subsequent buildings.

New construction of Hainstrasse 3 in Leipzig (Webers Hof), (1662)
Old Leipzig Stock Exchange, Am Naschmarkt, (1678–1679)
Mansion of the Einsiedel family on the Hopfgarten manor near Frohburg (1677–1679)

literature

Wolfgang Hocquél : Leipzig - Architecture from the Romanesque to the present . 1st edition. Passage-Verlag, Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-932900-54-5 , p. 276 .
Nikolaus Pevsner , Leipziger Barock - The architecture of the baroque period in Leipzig , EA Seemann Verlag, Leipzig 1st edition 1990, reprint of the edition of the publishing house by Wolfgang Jens, Dresden. 1st edition 1928, ISBN 3-363-00457-5
Andreas Stephainski (editor), time travel - 1200 years of life in Leipzig , Leipziger Verlags- und Druckereigesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, Leipzig 2007, ISBN 978-3-9806625-4-3
Art monuments in the GDR - A picture handbook districts Dresden - Karl-Marx-Stadt - Leipzig , explanations and selection of pictures by Albrecht Dohmann, Edition Leipzig, 2nd improved edition 1989, ISBN 3-361-00249-4

Remarks

↑ The entry in the corpse book (Leipzig City Archives) for Richter's funeral read: “Ao. 1684, Tuesday, d. August 19th Christian Richter Raths Meurer aufm Raths Kirchhofe. “ The exact date of death is not known. From: Pevsner, Leipziger Barock , pp. 13 and 185
↑ The Dresden architecture historian Walter Hentschel (1899–1970) attributed the design of the Old Trading Exchange to the Dresden master builder Johann Georg Starcke for the first time in 1964 and restricted Richter's collaboration to the construction work.
↑ George Rotzsch became a journeyman with Christian Richter in 1663, master craftsman in 1670 and master mason in 1692. He trained, among others, Christian Döring (1677–1750) and the builder of the community center Kleine Fleischergasse 4 ( “coffee tree” ) Adam Jacob (1671–1743). Rotzsch died in 1700.
↑ Christian Schmidt can be traced back to Leipzig in 1673. He worked for many years as a carpenter with Johann Gregor Fuchs, for example in 1706/07 on the renovation of the Fregehaus (Katharinenstrasse 11), the royal house or the construction of Aeckerleins Hof (Markt 11). Due to structural damage to this building, Fuchs and Schmidt fell out in 1710; their dispute could only be ended in 1713 , and only after the urging of Augustus the Strong . Schmidt then worked with Christian Döring, for example on the construction of the building at Katharinenstrasse 14, and died in 1737.
↑ Nikolaus Rempe became a journeyman with Christian Richter in 1672, a master craftsman in 1689 and died in 1711. Between 1690 and 1711 he was a busy master mason in Leipzig. His last work was the renovation of the Bose House from 1709 to 1711 .

personal data
SURNAME	Judge, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German architect and builder of the baroque
DATE OF BIRTH	1625
DATE OF DEATH	around August 19, 1684
Place of death	Leipzig

[1] The entry in the corpse book (Leipzig City Archives) for Richter's funeral read: “Ao. 1684, Tuesday, d. August 19th Christian Richter Raths Meurer aufm Raths Kirchhofe. “ The exact date of death is not known. From: Pevsner, Leipziger Barock , pp. 13 and 185

[2] The Dresden architecture historian Walter Hentschel (1899–1970) attributed the design of the Old Trading Exchange to the Dresden master builder Johann Georg Starcke for the first time in 1964 and restricted Richter's collaboration to the construction work.

[3] George Rotzsch became a journeyman with Christian Richter in 1663, master craftsman in 1670 and master mason in 1692. He trained, among others, Christian Döring (1677–1750) and the builder of the community center Kleine Fleischergasse 4 ( “coffee tree” ) Adam Jacob (1671–1743). Rotzsch died in 1700.

[4] Christian Schmidt can be traced back to Leipzig in 1673. He worked for many years as a carpenter with Johann Gregor Fuchs, for example in 1706/07 on the renovation of the Fregehaus (Katharinenstrasse 11), the royal house or the construction of Aeckerleins Hof (Markt 11). Due to structural damage to this building, Fuchs and Schmidt fell out in 1710; their dispute could only be ended in 1713 , and only after the urging of Augustus the Strong . Schmidt then worked with Christian Döring, for example on the construction of the building at Katharinenstrasse 14, and died in 1737.

[5] Nikolaus Rempe became a journeyman with Christian Richter in 1672, a master craftsman in 1689 and died in 1711. Between 1690 and 1711 he was a busy master mason in Leipzig. His last work was the renovation of the Bose House from 1709 to 1711 .