Friedrich August Stüler

Friedrich August Stüler (28 January 1800 – 18 March 1865) was an influential Prussian architect and builder. His masterpiece is the Neues Museum in Berlin, as well as the dome of the triumphal arch of the main portal of the Berliner Schloss.

Life Stüler was born on 28 January 1800 in Mühlhausen. In 1818 he started studying architecture and became a student of Karl Friedrich Schinkel in Berlin. After travelling to France and Italy together with Eduard Knoblauch in 1829 and 1830 and to Russia together with Heinrich Strack in 1831, Stüler became (Royal Buildings Inspector), (Royal privy councillor for buildings) and director of the commission for the building of the Berliner Stadtschloss in 1832. In 1837, he planned the rebuilding of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, but failed to realise these plans because Nicholas I decided to rebuild the original Baroque/Rococo palace instead of Stüler's Neo-Renaissance concept. Stüler then returned to Berlin, where Frederick William IV opened a huge array of tasks to him, making him (Royal architect) in 1842.

Together with Frederick William IV, who had previously (since his first journey to Italy in 1828) studied Italian architecture, Stüler incorporated Classical antiquity and Renaissance architecture in what was to become a Prussian Arcadia. They also conceived a recourse to early Christian motives such as the liturgy of the Early church to avoid political problems with the contemporary church. After the death of Ludwig Persius, Stüler assumed control of the building of the Church of Peace in Potsdam in 1845. The joint journeys to Italy of Stüler and Frederick William IV in 1858–59 deepened the Italian influence from medieval and Quattrocento buildings. His ideas for Cast-iron architecture or the techniques he used for the Neues Museum are more likely influenced from a journey to England in 1842. The building was badly damaged during World War II, but was reopened in 2009.

Stüler died in Berlin, where he is buried in the Dorotheenstadt cemetery.

Works

While many of the buildings Stüler built were destroyed in World War II, a few were restored – not in the original ways, but one can still see Stülers concepts on the outside, especially in the Jakobi church in Berlin.

Commonly, Stüler is viewed as a student of Karl Friedrich Schinkel as well as an architect of his own right, combining the wishes of Frederick William IV, Schinkels Classicism and the new Historicism of the Wilhelminian era, though he didn't refer to himself as a student of Schinkel.

His works were: 1827–1831: probably restored the 1837: Planned the restoration of the Winter Palace, Saint Petersburg 1834–1837: St. Peter und Paul auf Nikolskoje, Berlin-Zehlendorf 1839–1843: Schloss Alt-Autz, Auce, Latvia 1842: Converted the Kurfürstliches Schloss in Koblenz 1842–45: Addendum to the Franziskaner-Klosterkirche in Berlin 1843–44: Jagdschloss Letzlingen 1853–55: Dorfkirche in Basedow (Mecklenburg) 1843–1855: Neues Museum 1844–1845: St. Jacobi-Kirche in Berlin-Kreuzberg 1844–1863: University of Königsberg 1844–1846: St. Matthäus-Church, Berlin-Tiergarten around 1845: Royal Castle in Breslau, (destroyed 1945) 1845–1854: Friedenskirche in Potsdam 1845: Evangelical church in Wiehl-Drabenderhöhe 1845: plans for the Emanuelkirche, Schirwindt (dedicated 1856, destroyed 1944) 1846–1856: Interior design of the reconstructed Roman Palace auditorium (sog. Basilika), Trier, (destroyed) 1847–1853: Castle of the Fürsten Radolin in Jarotschin 1847–1863: Belvedere auf dem Pfingstberg, Potsdam 1848–1852: The of Caputh, Brandenburg City church St. Johannis in Niemegk 1848–1866: National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm 1850–1867: Burg Hohenzollern 1850: grave monument to lieutenant general Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch on the Invalids´Cemetery in Berlin 1851–1864: Orangerie in Potsdam 1851: Triumphal gate am Mühlenberg, Potsdam 1851: Schwerin Castle 1853: St. Archangel Michael's Church in Rietavas, Lithuania 1851–1857: Bridge over the Vistula in Dirschau 1851–59: Two guard barracks across from the Charlottenburg Palace (now home to the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection and the Berggruen Museum), Berlin 1852–1859: Barracks of the "Garde du Corps" across from Schloss Charlottenburg in Berlin-Charlottenburg 1853–1856: Restoration of the Lutherhaus in Lutherstadt Wittenberg 1854–1855: Bornstedter Kirche, Potsdam 1855–1861: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, (destroyed) 1857: Addendum to the Church St. Johannis in Berlin-Moabit, originally built by Schinkel (Portico, Colonnade, Vicarage and Steeple) 1857–1860: Trinitatis Church, Cologne 1858: Werdersche Kirche, Werder an der Havel 1858–1859: Dorfkirche in Stolpe, Berlin-Wannsee 1858–1874: Domkandidatenstift in Berlin-Mitte (completed by Stüve) 1859: Conversion of 1859–1866: Neue Synagoge, Berlin-Mitte 1859–1861: The of the 1859–1862: Dorfkirche Pinnow (near Oranienburg) 1860–1864: Klassizistische Orangerie of the Zehnthof in Sinzig 1860: The of Dippmannsdorf 1862–1865: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest 1862–1876 Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin-Mitte 1864–1866: , Oranienburg 1864: Concept of the (Twelve Apostles Church), Berlin-Schöneberg (built 1871–74 by Hermann Wilhelm Albert Blankenstein) 1865: Neustrelitz Palace, Neustrelitz (posthumous) 1867: The of Fehrbellin (posthumous)

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