Johann Friedrich Karcher

Johann Friedrich Karcher (also: Kargor) (* September 8, 1650 in Dresden ; † February 9, 1726 there ) was a German garden designer and master builder . Karcher was one of the first to bring the classic French garden style from Le Nôtre to Germany. he was one of the early masters of the Dresden Baroque .

life and work

Little is known about his activity before it was first mentioned in Dresden.

Karcher originally learned the trade of gardener. Later Karcher took further training in architecture from the Saxon master builder Wolf Caspar von Klengel .

As head gardener of Prince Elector Johann Georg II of Saxony from 1683, Karcher initially delivered a copy of the report on the condition of the hunting garden in Dresden, initially laid out in 1676 by court gardener Martin Göttler with a star-shaped system of paths. From 1678, the master builder Johann Georg Starcke built the “ Palais im Großer Garten ” (also: “Palais Prinz Georg”) in coordination with Karcher's garden planning . Karcher designed the garden around this center from 1684, under Johann Georg III. , in the style of the French Baroque, with a right-angled network of paths, avenues, to the Great Garden . Between 1684 and 1694, the master builder Starcke built the palace and eight pavilions ("cavalier houses") around the palace based on Karcher's designs.

The design concept changed several times, due to the change of regents (Johann Georg II. † 1680; Johann Georg III. † 1691, Johann Georg IV. † 1694, after a phase of stagnation the work was continued in 1695 under his brother August the Strong ). In essence, the system, which was finally built around 1718, followed the report submitted by Karcher in 1683.

Karcher and Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann also designed the first, still wooden buildings of the Dresden Zwinger . In 1682, according to his plans, the small pleasure garden was laid out , from which today's Blüherpark emerged .

On an educational trip to Italy in 1693 he got to know the local architecture. In 1698 he went on his first study trip to Paris. In the same year Karcher began working on drafts for the redesign and expansion (Królewski wing) of the Royal Palace in Warsaw. However, they were not carried out.

In 1699 he was appointed by Augustus the Strong to be the second electoral Polish master builder. After the departure of the First Oberland Master Builder Christoph Beyer , Karcher took over his position in 1706 and remained the sole Oberland Master Builder in Dresden until 1718. In 1702 he confidently calls himself "Johann Friedrich Karcher alias Vitruvius ".

In 1709, Karcher designed a large basin to the southeast in front of the Marly model .

The central building of the Taschenbergpalais in Dresden (residence of Countess Cosel ), built by Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann from 1706–1711 , was also based on stylistic idiosyncrasies, also with significant involvement from Karcher, who was Pöppelmann's supervisor and teacher at the time (destroyed in the war in 1945, reconstructed in 1993–95 as a hotel).

Under Elector Johann Georg III. Karcher also laid a “Small Pleasure Garden” (also called “Long Garden”) for the court's festivities with a 280 meter long gondola basin (after several redesigns, the Blüherpark is located there today ).

In 1710, Oberlandbaumeister Karcher drafted new building regulations for Dresden (another in 1720). These regulated the urban conversion of the former Renaissance city of Dresden into a baroque city, required the exclusive stone construction and prescribed the number and height of the floors as well as a standardization of the plaster color. It was mainly used for the baroque reconstruction of the New Royal City, but new streets with a uniform appearance were also created in the Neumarkt area.

On another study trip in 1714, Karcher visited the palace and gardens of Versailles . From 1715, under the influence of what was seen, the basin and the side bosquets as well as the ditch parterre around the palace were built in the Great Garden. Until 1719 a labyrinth, a natural theater, a pheasant enclosure and a temple of Venus were also laid out.

Another work he created in 1718 was the terraced gardens of the Dutch Palace (later called the Japanese Palace) on the banks of the Elbe. According to designs by Karcher and Pöppelmann, a baroque palace and park was built for Chamberlain August the Strong, Joachim Sigismund von Ziegler and Klipphausen, near Radmeritz (today Radomierzyce near Zgorzelec ; Upper Lusatia) in place of an old moated castle (completed in 1728; see Joachimstein Abbey ).

Baroque Neschwitz Castle

From 1721 to 1723, under Duke Friedrich Ludwig von Württemberg-Winnental (1690–1734), the baroque palace , four associated pavilions and the palace park in Neschwitz were built according to plans by Karcher.

Karcher's designs for Schloss Wilhelmshöhe near Kassel and Schloss Neu-Augustusburg in Weißenfels (Saxony-Anhalt) were not carried out.

After Karcher's death, his pupil Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann also succeeded him as master builder.

The grave and epitaph of Karcher and his family are in the Protestant church in Leubnitz-Neuostra ( Prohlis local authority ), which he himself expanded in 1720.

The street between Strehlen and Gruna Karcherallee was named in honor of Johann Friedrich Karcher.

literature

Karcher epitaph in the Leubnitz-Neuostra church

• Harald Blanke: The great garden in Dresden. History and design in the age of August the Strong 1676 - 1733 . Dissertation, TU Dresden, 2000.
• Dieter Hennebo:  Karcher, Johann Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 148 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Aleksander Król: Zamek Królewski w Warszawie. Od końca XIII wieku do roku 1944 . Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Warszawa 1971
• Stephan Reinert: Johann Friedrich Karcher and the regional construction office between Starcke and Pöppelmann . Dissertation, TU Dresden