Johann August Arens

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Voght's country house in Klein-Flottbeck, steel engraving by L. Wolf from 1805
Roman house in Weimar
The Büsch monument at its current location
St. Petri funeral chapel in Hamburg

Johann August Arens (* 10. February 1757 in Hamburg , † 18th August 1806 in Pisa , Italy) was a German architect of classicism , landscapers, painters, weimarischer construction officer, Mr and member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Fine Arts and Mechanical Sciences in Berlin .

life and work

Arens, son of a carpenter from Stralsund, studied from 1778 to 1783 at the Georg-August University in Göttingen and at the Royal Danish Academy of Art under Caspar Frederik Harsdorff , where he won a total of four prizes.

A grant from the Patriotic Society enabled him to travel to France in 1784 and 1785, where he dealt with revolutionary architecture and interior decoration of residential buildings. In 1786 and 1787 he traveled to England and Italy. He studied garden art in England, and was primarily concerned with the harmonious connection between landscape and architecture. In Naples he studied the ancient sites, resulting in masterful pictures and drawings. In 1787 he made the acquaintance of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Rome and visited the most important ancient sites in Italy. Goethe called him to Weimar to rebuild the Weimar City Palace, which burned down in 1774 . In 1791 he was appointed princely building officer. In Weimar he designed the Roman House . In 1790 Arens returned to Hamburg, became a member of the Patriotic Society from 1765 and received Hamburg citizenship. In 1793 he married Cecilia Elisabeth, the daughter of the Hamburg pastor Johann Matthias Liebrecht. In the following years he realized numerous public buildings in Hamburg, a total of around 30 town and country houses, gardens and monuments.

Along with Christian Frederik Hansen, Arens was one of the most important classicist builders in Hamburg. The Arensweg in Hamburg- Winterhude is named after him.

Buildings (selection)

Drafts (selection)

literature

  • Gerhard Wietek : The Hamburg architect Johann August Arens (1757–1806) as a master builder of Goethe. In: “Preserving and shaping”, Festschrift for Günther Grundmann . Hamburg 1962, pp. 165-176.
  • Gerhard Wietek: The architect Johann August Arens and the Patriotic Society . In: “Preserving and shaping”, commemorative publication for Günther Grundmann . Hamburg 1962.
  • David Watkin, Tilman Mellinghoff: German architecture and the classical ideal 1740-1840. Thames & Hudson, London 1987, ISBN 0-500-34099-4 .
  • Rolf Bothe, Christian Hecht: poet, prince and architect. The Weimar residential palace from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 19th century. Poets' memory and princely representation. The west wing of the Weimar residential palace. Architecture and equipment. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit 2000, ISBN 3-7757-0836-7 .
  • Christine Knupp (Ed.): Architect Johann August Arens. A Hamburg classicist architect 1757–1806. (Catalog for the exhibition from October 4 to November 19, 1972 in the Altonaer Museum in Hamburg.) Hamburg 1972.
  • General Artist Lexicon , Volume 5, 1992, p. 25.
  • Rochus von Liliencron :  Arens, Johann August . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 517.
  • Gerd Wietek:  Arens, Johann August. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 346 ( digitized version ).
  • Hamburgisches Künstler-Lexikon , Die Bildenden Künstler Vol. 1, edit. by a committee of the Association for Hamburg History , Hoffmann and Campe , Hamburg, 1854, p. 6, ( online Hamburg State and University Library).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Arens, Johann August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ahrens, Johann August; Arns, Johann August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect, landscape designer, construction officer
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1757
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 1806
Place of death Pisa