Georg Erbkam

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Georg Erbkam

Georg Gustav Erbkam (born September 29, 1811 in Glogau , † February 3, 1876 in Berlin ) was a German architect and building researcher who worked as a Prussian building officer .

Career as an architect

Georg Gustav Erbkam was born in Glogau as the youngest of four brothers. His father was a privy councilor, his mother a daughter of the court preacher Sack . In 1815 the father received an appointment to Berlin and the family took up residence there. Here Georg attended the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium . He found it difficult to acquire the ancient languages ​​taught at the school (Latin, Greek), but he showed a talent for drawing. So, on the advice of his father, he decided to start his career as an architect. First he did an apprenticeship as a surveyor , which he completed with an examination in 1831. While he was practically active in this field, Erbkam also completed a two-year course for master builders and a one-year training course for agricultural inspectors at the Royal General Building School . His internships took him to work on hydraulic structures in the Frankfurt (Oder) administrative district and to work on land structures under the direction of the Langerhans town planning council . In 1836 Georg Erbkam passed the preliminary examination as a land and road builder , in 1837 as an agricultural inspector , and in 1838 as a hydraulic engineering inspector . After submitting a well-rated design for a university building as a thesis, he was awarded the title of agricultural inspector in July 1841 .

Johann Jakob Frey : The Lepsius expedition hoists the Prussian flag on the Cheops pyramid on October 15, 1842, the birthday of Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
(Heir came fourth from the right)

Experience in antiquity research in Egypt

Erbkam: admission of Quban and Semna

Karl Richard Lepsius invited Erbkam in 1842 to participate as an architect and geodesist in an expedition to Egypt financed by the Prussian state . He acted as Lepsius' deputy and carried most of the organizational responsibility. During the expedition he kept the diary in which he recorded the work flow, the living conditions and the personal circumstances of the expedition participants from 1842 to 1845. His topographical recordings, his plans of the temples and graves set standards for the development of historical building research . He made plans for the pyramid fields near Memphis , the area of Abu Roasch and Amarna and also building surveys of the pyramids and mastabas from Gizeh to Fayum , as well as the rock tombs of Beni Hasan . He also measured the temples of Thebes and Karnak . The exact recording of ancient Egyptian architecture in its landscape context was largely Erbkam's work. For the publication of the results in monuments from Egypt and Ethiopia (1849-1858) he made 81 plates .

Work and selection of his works

After his return, Erbkam sought a professorship, but was instead employed in 1846 as a master builder in the central state building administration affiliated to the Prussian Ministry of Commerce. He worked there with the architect Friedrich August Stüler in the church building department . He was appointed building inspector for church construction and carried out the construction of the church of the Georgengemeinde (1853) and the Markuskirche (1848 to 1855) in Berlin . In 1851 he took over the editing of the magazine for construction , in 1860 he became secretary of the association for religious art in the Protestant church . His own house in Eichhornstraße, the Golgothakapelle in Borsigstraße, the church in Glienicke / Nordbahn and in 1867 the Protestant church in Alexandria were built according to his own designs . From 1865 until his death he built the National Gallery together with Johann Heinrich Strack based on the designs of Stüler. Shortly before his death, he was appointed secret councilor .

literature

Web links

Commons : Georg Erbkam  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Sabrina Bernhard, Sören Franke: Georg Gustav Erbkam ( memento of October 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), at lepsius-online
  2. ^ Obituary for Georg Erbkam in the ZS für Bauwesen  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) (PDF) 1876, booklets I – III; P. 78 (144).@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.opus.kobv.de
  3. Erbkam finished the diary in November 1845 in Rome, according to Wittich, AKL the expedition ended in 1846.
  4. a b Wolfgang Günter Lerch : He drew the strong man on the Nile. In: FAZ , July 27, 2013, p. 32.
  5. ^ A b c Elke Freier, Stefan Grunert: A journey through Egypt…. Munich 1986, p. 175.