Johann Christian Förster (architect)

Johann Christian Förster (baptized April 22, 1705 in Kiel ; † after 1762 probably in Saint Petersburg ) was an architect , building inspector and officer .

Life

Johann Christian Förster was the son of a mason of the same name who came from Zittau and became a citizen of Kiel on January 11, 1703. His mother's name was Anna Margarethe. Förster's professional training is not documented.

On August 14, 1736, Förster was appointed forest manager. On November 18, 1737, he married Catharina Knutzen in Kiel, with whom he had five daughters and two sons. At that time he was forest manager and Premier Guarde Vice Corporal. On October 21, 1738 he was appointed captain. On May 18, 1743, he took over the "supervision and care of the building", but remained captain. For the new activities he should receive an additional five Reichsthaler per month. On December 11, 1743, he received the instructions for his new position.

Förster continued to work as an officer and was promoted to captain-lieutenant on January 9, 1747. In December 1751 he reached the position of staff captain in the Kiel battalion of the Grand Duchess. On January 26, 1754, he was given leave to oversee construction work on Kiel Castle and in Bordesholm . In May 1756, he requested a four-month vacation and an advance payment of his wages so that he could travel to Saint Petersburg. He obviously didn't come back from there.

After he had confirmed on May 13, 1756 that he would take care of religious affairs, Förster apparently moved to Saint Petersburg. There he worked as an officer in the newly created detachment of Grand Duke Peter III. His wife later got permission from the pension chamber to sell a hoof in Brunswick . According to this document of October 13, 1759, her husband was a Grand Princely Major. It was probably the same person who died in 1762 during Peter III. Tenure led a regiment named after him.

Working as an architect and builder

From 1743 to 1756 Förster mostly worked as a building inspector at Kiel Castle. In 1748 and 1754 he repeatedly wrote reports for significant and extensive repairs, which, however, were not carried out. He was only allowed to carry out the essential repairs. The building supervision took over on July 17, 1754 master mason Johann David Hempel, who had been master mason since September 5, 1755. Förster and Hempel worked together until May 1756. Förster also supervised the layout of the palace gardens and carried out this work together with construction director Johann Christian Löwen from Eutin .

In addition to the work on the castle, Förster prepared plans and reports for building projects at the University of Kiel . On March 14, 1749, he presented a comprehensive report. In it he explained the construction defects, which are far advanced, as well as plans for a new building that could have been expanded later. He also planned a new office building for Caspar von Saldern in Neumünster, which was built in 1745 and 1746 and still exists today as the Caspar von Saldern House .

In 1748, Förster planned an office building in Tremsbüttel for the pension chamber . In 1749/50 he drew up plans for a new basic plant for the grand princely mill for grain and grain in Bad Oldesloe and later took over the construction management.

A master builder, Johann Christian Förster, had been commissioned to carry out numerous construction projects in and around Saint Petersburg since 1713, where he is said to have died in 1747 at an advanced age. Possibly this was a relative, he cannot be identical to the one born in 1705, since he was only eight years old in 1713 and can also be traced back to Kiel until 1756.

literature

• Rudolf Jaeger: Forester, Johann Christian. In: Schleswig-Holstein Biographical Lexicon. Volume 3. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1974, pp. 115-116.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Foerster, Johann Christian . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 12 : Fiori-Fyt . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1916, p. 136-137 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive ).