Maximilian von Welsch

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Johann Maximilian von Welsch (born February 23, 1671 in Kronach ; † October 15, 1745 in Mainz ) was a German architect , chief construction director and fortress builder.

Life

Birthplace of Johann Maximilian von Welsch, Strauer Straße 9 in Kronach
Market in Mainz. In the house "to Boderam" , Market 11, lived Welsch from 1708 until his death. After being destroyed in the war in 1945, the facades were redesigned in 1979 and again in 2008.

Maximilian von Welsch is an important representative of baroque fortress construction in the Holy Roman Empire . He also made a name for himself by building castles .

education

Maximilian von Welsch traveled to the great metropolises of the time such as Vienna , Rome and Paris for training . He studied the buildings of Francesco Borromini , François Mansart and Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach .

Act

In 1695 he was already in imperial military service and was responsible for building the fortress. The name he gave himself in 1704 caused the Elector of Mainz and Archbishop Lothar Franz von Schönborn to bring Welsch to the electoral residence city for the expansion and completion of the Mainz fortress . Welsch was supported by engineer - Lieutenant Colonel Luttig, engineer - Colonel Gerhard Cornelius von Walrave and other engineer officers. In Mainz , Lothar Franz von Schönborn was also responsible for the further architectural design of the Favorite pleasure palace opposite the mouth of the Main. In 1793, however, the Favorite was destroyed during the siege of the city .

With the title of Kurmainzische and Bamberg's senior building director (until 1729), von Welsch continued to be responsible for many new and expanded castles. From 1711 he was involved in the construction of Weissenstein Castle in Pommersfelden , especially the Marstall, together with Johann Dientzenhofer , with whom he had already built the Mainzer Favorite . He also built for Georg August Samuel of Nassau-Idstein the Idstein Castle and worked at the central building of Schloss Biebrich in Wiesbaden-Biebrich with. At the Würzburg Residence and the Fulda Orangery , too , Welsch was at least involved in submitting and designing drafts. He was already famous for his buildings during his lifetime and was ennobled by the Emperor in Vienna on September 9, 1714, to the rank of Imperial Knight with the title Noble von Welsch .

From the 1720s at the latest, however, Maximilian von Welsch was increasingly ousted by the aspiring Balthasar Neumann , the architect and construction manager of the residence and the Schönborn chapel in Würzburg (von Welsch submitted drafts for both construction projects around 1726). and probably the most important baroque master builder in Germany today. Projects that had already been planned were taken over by Neumann, which Neumann only carried out heavily modified or completely redesigned, such as the pilgrimage church Vierzehnheiligen . The church in Amorbach (started in 1742) goes back to von Welsch's designs, but he never saw its completion. Johann Maximilian Ritter and Edler von Welsch died on October 15, 1745 in Mainz.

The so-called Welsch suitcase is exhibited in the Mainz State Museum. It is a completely preserved measuring set and drawing utensil case by the architect, probably made in Paris before 1714. The extent and quality of the valuable furnishings document the high social rank of Welsch in the electoral Mainz.

  • One of two removable shelves from Maximilian von Welsch's measuring utensils and drawing tools case

  • Wooden chest of the measuring cutlery and drawing tools case by Maximilian von Welsch

  • Second of the removable shelves from Maximilian von Welsch's measuring utensils and drawing tools case

Posthumous honors

  • The Maximilian-von-Welsch-Realschule in Kronach bears his name.

Works

Plan of the city and fortress Mainz with the new fortifications - by Bernard-Antoine Jaillot, 1736

drafts

literature

in order of appearance

  • Wolfgang Einsingbach: Johann Maximilian von Welsch. New contributions to his life and his work for Prince Georg August von Nassau-Idstein . In: Nassauische Annalen , Vol. 74 (1963), pp. 79–170.
  • Joachim Meintzschel: Studies on Maximilian von Welsch . Dissertation University of Würzburg 1964.
  • Herbert Schwarz: The Kronach baroque master builder Maximilian von Welsch. His life and work . Saalfrank, Helmbrechts 1977.
  • Fritz Arens : Maximilian von Welsch (1671-1745). An architect of the Schönborn bishops . Schnell and Steiner, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7954-0373-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfred Börckel: Mainz as a fortress and garrison from Roman times to the present . Published by J. Diemer, Mainz 1913 (p. 71).
  2. ↑ Stefan Kummer : Architecture and fine arts from the beginnings of the Renaissance to the end of the Baroque. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes; Volume 2: From the Peasants' War in 1525 to the transition to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1814. Theiss, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8062-1477-8 , pp. 576–678 and 942–952, here: pp. 649–652 and 662.
  3. ^ Jens Fachbach: Johann Georg Judas (around 1655-1726). On the architecture of a clerical electorate on the Rhine and Moselle in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Regensburg 2013, pp. 157–163.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Welsch, Maximilian von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Welsch, Johann Maximilian von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Baroque architect and fortress builder
DATE OF BIRTH February 23, 1671
PLACE OF BIRTH Kronach
DATE OF DEATH October 15, 1745
Place of death Mainz