Johann Caspar Wolff

Burghölzli Clinic in Zurich by JC Wolff, 1864–1870, steel engraving around 1890

Burghölzli Clinic Zurich, main building

Gesellschaftshaus Museum in Bern

Government building train

Church huts

Old Wettingen spinning mill

Johann Caspar Wolff , also Johann Kaspar Wolff (born September 28, 1818 in Zurich ; † April 27, 1891 ibid) was a Swiss architect of classicism and historicism , and also state building inspector of the canton of Zurich .

life and work

Wolff completed an apprenticeship with Hans Rychner in Neuchâtel from 1833 to 1836 , after which he was trained as an architect at the Academy in Munich until 1840 . From 1845 to 1848 or 1851 he was a building manager in Zofingen . Then until 1865 he held the office of State Building Inspector for the Canton of Zurich.

After the devastating fire in Glarus , after 1861 he and Bernhard Simon planned to rebuild the canton's capital. His architectural work is in part still committed to late classicism, but in many cases can already be assigned to historicism. Wolff often made use of the neo-Gothic and neo-renaissance styles . His son Caspar Otto Wolff was also an architect.

Buildings (selection)

• Primary school in Wohlen , 1851–1854, simple late classicist building
• Baumgärtli primary school in Horgen , 1852
• District prison in Winterthur , 1852–1854
• Reformed rectory Wiesendangen , 1853–1854.
• Reformed Church of Winterthur-Töss , 1854–1855, neo-Gothic hall church
• District building Pfäffikon ZH , 1855, simple, late classicist building
• Reformed Church Hütten , 1855–1856, country church of the late classicism
• Reformed Church Küsnacht , 1857, tower addition in neo-Gothic shapes
• Old cotton spinning mill Wettingen , 1857–1860, administration building occupied by Wolff's factory; The rest of the system is attributed to Wolff
• Einsiedeln village center , 1859–1861, originally Heilig-Geist-Spital , late classical palace
• Salt, grain and warehouse in Winterthur , 1861–1863, goods warehouse
• Stadtanlage Glarus , 1861–1864, right-angled redesign of the city system after a landslide, developed together with Bernhard Simon.

... one of the most high-quality urban developments of the 19th century in Switzerland.

• Individual buildings in Glarus:
  • Foreign Palace, 1862, late Classicist building, today Hotel "Glarnerhof"
  • House Heer, 1863, late Classicist civil building for Joachim Heer
  • Courthouse, 1862–1884, late Classicist tribunal building with side pavilions
  • Higher city school, 1870–1872, late Classicist school building, today the state library
• Rein Reformed Church , 1863–1864, neo-Gothic country church
• Reformed Church Dielsdorf ZH , 1864–1866, neo-Gothic nave
• Conversion of Rheinau monastery , 1864–1867, conversion of the baroque monastery complex into a sanatorium and nursing home for the Canton of Zurich
• Armory of the old barracks in Zurich, 1964–1869, building complex in the style of the Italian Renaissance.
• Psychiatric University Clinic Zurich am Burghölzli , 1864–1870, monumental neo-renaissance facility
• Gesellschaftshaus Museum in Bern, 1866–1869, neo-renaissance palace on Bundesplatz, today the seat of the Bern Cantonal Bank
• Government building in Zug , 1869–1873, neo-renaissance building, with his son Caspar Otto Wolff based on a model by Arnold Bosshard.
• Cantonal Psychiatric Clinic Marsens FR, 1872–1875, large area with pavilions around a former Jesuit monastery
• Reformed Church Wangen , parish Wangen-Brüttisellen , 1874, neo-Gothic country church

Gallery of buildings in Glarus

• 

  Glarus Foreign Palace

• 

  House Heer Glarus

• 

  Courthouse Glarus

• 

  Higher City School Glarus

literature

• Regula Michel: Wolff, Johann Caspar. In: Isabelle Rucki, Dorothee Huber (Hrsg.): Architectural Lexicon of Switzerland - 19./20. Century. Birkhäuser, Basel 1998, ISBN 3-7643-5261-2 , p. 572.
• † Joh. Kaspar Wolff . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 17 , no. 18 , 1891, p. 114 ( online at: E-Periodica ).
• Inventory of the newer Swiss architecture ISNA 1850–1920. Society for Swiss Art History GSK, Bern 1996/2004.
• Art guide through Switzerland. Volume 1, Society for Swiss Art History GSK, Bern 2005.
• Art guide through Switzerland. Volume 2, Society for Swiss Art History GSK, Bern 2005.
• Art guide through Switzerland. Volume 3, Society for Swiss Art History GSK, Bern 2006.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Art Guide through Switzerland, Volume 2. Society for Swiss Art History GSK, Bern 2005, p. 19.

Web links

• Cornelia Bauer: Wolff, Johann Kaspar. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .