Julius Löwe (architect)

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Monument to lion with city model in Neustrelitz

(Christoph) Julius Löwe (* around 1690 in Braunschweig (?); † around 1752 in Neustrelitz (?)) Was a master builder , garden architect , and ducal court gardener and court architect in Mecklenburg-Strelitz . According to his plans, the residential town of Neustrelitz of the still young Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was built from 1731 , with its characteristic radial floor plan.

life and work

Art gardener and master builder: around 1690 to 1731

For Julius Löwe, neither life dates nor other places of work have yet to be determined. Nothing is known about his training either. From 1720 at the latest, Löwe, who is said to come from Braunschweig, was in the service of Duke Adolf Friedrich III as a “princely art gardener” . , the second regent of the newly founded Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz . Löwe's office is probably that of a Hzgl. meckl. strel. Court gardener comparable, but his official duties soon went beyond those of a horticultural artist and garden architect. He may have already provided the designs for a zoo that was set up in 1721 not far from the ducal hunting lodge Glienecke. From 1724 at the latest, however, Löwe was primarily active as a ducal master builder. Leo is likely to have been the first of a long line of court architects of the Strelitz dukes.

Löwe built St. Mary's Church in Strelitz from 1724 to 1730 on the foundations of a medieval predecessor building (later redesigned many times). In 1726 he was entrusted with the renovation and expansion of the ducal hunting lodge in Glienecke into the new residence castle of the Strelitz dukes, which had become necessary after the fire of the previous residence in Strelitz (1712) and which Löwe employed until 1731 and in the same year the title of Hzgl . meckl. strel. Hofbaumeister brought in. Until 1731, Löwe built further outbuildings of the palace complex and two single-storey commercial and administrative buildings in Glienecke, which soon after was only called Neustrelitz .

Planning and construction of the city of Neustrelitz: 1731 to around 1750

The largest building project for Löwe began in 1731 with the Duke's first plans to build a court settlement for authorities, civil servants and utilities right next to the new residential palace, from which, after initial uncertainties, the new residential city of Neustrelitz grew in the course of the first half of the century . Löwe mastered the extremely difficult terrain, planned and implemented a baroque city layout with eight star-shaped streets from the market square, as can still be admired in Neustrelitz today. In contrast to comparable cities, however, it was not possible in Neustrelitz to position the already existing princely palace in the middle of the complex. While the dukes were only able to finally decide in the course of the next two decades to develop Neustrelitz into a (politically insignificant) residential town and not just a district of the old Mecklenburg country town of Strelitz , the responsibility for the construction process lay in Löwe's hands. As the ducal master builder, he was responsible for the instruction of the building sites as well as the management and supervision of all buildings in Neustrelitz.

In addition to all these duties, Löwe still found time to rebuild the Neubrandenburg town hall after a fire in 1738 . From 1741 to 1752 he built the city palace in Fürstenberg as a ducal widow's residence, from 1742 to 1745 the manor house in Sponholz for a high-ranking official and from 1749 to 1752 he left his mark on Mirow Palace .

It has not yet been possible to determine with certainty whether other buildings can be traced back to Löwe. Stylistically, for example, the manor house in Suckwitz near Güstrow indicates his handwriting. Modern building research recently confirmed that Löwe can be seen as a builder of stature” .

Unsettled end

In the early 1750s, Löwe lost its tracks in Mecklenburg-Strelitz . We know that he married one of the castle maids in Strelitz in 1724 . Nothing is known of the couple's children (so far). However, we also know that the political turbulence surrounding Duke Adolf Friedrich IV's accession to the throne in 1752/53 brought the end of their careers for various Neustrelitz court officials. Biographical research has so far not been able to clarify whether Julius Löwe was one of them and whether he might have worked elsewhere in the period that followed.

monument

In 2010, Löwe received a monument created by Wolfgang Friedrich on the market square in Neustrelitz in the form of a bronze city model as well as a stele with a plan roll and bronze head, whose face is supposed to symbolize a female and a male side.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. With Julius Löwe and the city model into the 20th year of renovation , press release of the city of Neustrelitz from October 11, 2010, accessed on August 10, 2012