Georg Christian Gropius

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Georg Christian Gropius (born March 20, 1776 in Räbke ; † November 26, 1850 in Athens ) was a German entrepreneur , archaeologist and diplomat .

Life

Woman with daughter from the island of Chios (1802/04) - a work by Gropius

Georg Christian Gropius was the eighth of ten children of Pastor Georg Ludwig Siegfried Gropius (1726–1784) from Räbke. He was trained as a copper engraver, was tutor for Wilhelm von Humboldt's children from 1797 to 1801, and in 1802/03 he was a draftsman and travel companion for Jakob Ludwig Salomon Bartholdy in Italy, Asia Minor and Greece. From 1810 Gropius was Vice Consul of Great Britain in Thessaly for six years , then Austrian Consul in Athens, from 1830 in Nauplia . In 1840 he became the Austrian consul general in Athens.

From 1810 to 1814 Gropius took part in the archaeological excavations in Aegina and Bassae . In Berlin he had set up an “art, publishing and assortment store” in which, according to an advertisement in the Berlin address book in 1832, he mainly offered copperplate engravings, lithographs and “everything that is of interest to strangers who visit Berlin”.

Gropius supported the Greek liberation struggle against Turkish rule . He made a great fortune by exporting oil and owning ships. He made land in Athens available from his property for the construction of the royal palace (today's parliament building) and the ministries.

Gropius had been the holder of the Greek Order of Redeemer in gold since 1836 .

literature

  • Jakob Ludwig Salomon Bartholdy : Fragments for closer knowledge of today's Greece, collected on a trip ... in the years 1803–1804. First part. With nine illum. Coppers (by Gropius) with vignettes and music supplements. Berlin 1805, bl.uk
  • Christian Callmer: Georg Christian Gropius as agent, consul and archaeologist in Greece 1803-1850. CWK Gleerup, Lund 1982.
  • Arnold Körte: Martin Gropius: Life and Work of a Berlin Architect (1824-1880). Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86732-080-1 , pp. 31–32.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Business announcement . In: General housing gazette for Berlin, Charlottenburg and surroundings , 1832, before part 1, p. 1.
personal data
SURNAME Gropius, Georg Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur, archaeologist and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1776
PLACE OF BIRTH Räbke
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1850
Place of death Athens