Architectural History in the Architecture Academy: Wilhelm Stier (1799-1856) at the Bauakademie and Allgemeine Bauschule in Berlin
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Architectural history in the architecture academy: Wilhelm Stier (1799-1856) at the Bauakademie and Allgemeine Bauschule in Berlin Eric Garberson Figure 1 Wilhelm Stier in Selinunte, 1828, lithograph. Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek, Cologne, Inv. Nr. K5/120 (Photo: USB) Figure 2 Wilhelm Stier, collotype from Zeitschrift für Bauwesen 7 (1857), frontispiece. (Photo: Architekturmuseum, Technische Universität zu Berlin) Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 2 The first years of the Bauakademie and Hirt’s ‘Critical history of architecture’ ........ 17 The independent Bauakademie ......................................................................................... 25 Wilhelm Stier: youth, training, travel ............................................................................... 41 Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Bonn, 1817-1821 ................................................................. 43 Paris, 1821 ......................................................................................................................... 46 Rome, 1822-1827 .............................................................................................................. 50 Stier at the Bauakademie, 1828-1831 ................................................................................. 82 Beuth’s Reform of 1831-32 and Stier’s Professional Activities, 1832-1849 .................. 89 The Reform of 1848-1849 and Stier’s Last Years ........................................................... 106 Journal of Art Historiograhy Number 21 December 2019 Eric Garberson Architectural History in the Architecture Academy: Wilhelm Stier Student Notes and Stier’s Lectures ................................................................................. 112 Stier’s Architectural History Courses, 1828 to 1848 ..................................................... 127 Monuments of architecture and ancient monuments .............................................. 128 Comparative history ..................................................................................................... 148 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 156 Appendix One .................................................................................................................... 159 Appendix Two ................................................................................................................... 165 Introduction This essay extends the examination, in volumes five and seven of this journal, of the training, institutional appointments, and teaching careers of art historians in early nineteenth-century Berlin.1 Here the focus falls on Wilhelm Stier (1799-1856; figures 1 and 2), who taught architectural history from 1828 until his death at the Berlin architecture academy (Bauakademie 1799-1831, 1849-1879; Allgemeine Bauschule 1832-1848). Although well known as a teacher and for his submissions to high- profile architectural competitions, Stier has received little in-depth study by either architectural historians or historiographers of art and architectural history. His training and professional career are especially well documented in both official archives and his own Nachlaß, or personal papers.2 These primary source materials provide the basis for an informative case history of this important if somewhat singular figure in the development of architectural history as a field of teaching and research in the early nineteenth century. Then as now, architectural history was both part of and separate from the broader field of art history. Not unlike their current somewhat contested relationship, the overlapping histories of the two remain under-investigated. Little attention has been paid to the earlier decades of the nineteenth century or to how architectural history was informed by the curricular needs and administrative practices of architecture schools, which differed considerably from those in universities.3 1 Eric Garberson, ‘Art history in the university: Toelken – Hotho – Kugler’, Journal of Art Historiography 5 (December 2011); ‘Art history in the university II: Ernst Guhl’, Journal of Art Historiography 5 (December 2011). 2 Architekturmuseum, Technische Universität Berlin (AmTUB). 3 See most recently Mark Crinson and Richard J. Williams, The Architecture of Art History: A Historiography, London, Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019. They examine the increasing divergence of the two fields in the twentieth century as a departure from the supposed unity of the ‘German tradition’. Their discussion of this tradition begins only with the end of the nineteenth century. See also Paul Ranogajec, “Partial Eclipse: Architecture in nineteenth- century art history,” Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art Newsletter 22: 2 (Fall 2015), 1-3; Nancy Stieber, ‘Space, time and architectural history’, in Rethinking Architectural 2 Eric Garberson Architectural History in the Architecture Academy: Wilhelm Stier Like the art historians examined in the earlier essays, Aloys Hirt (1759-1837), E. H. Toelken (1785-1864), Gustav Heinrich Hotho (1802-1873), Franz Kugler (1808- 1858), and Ernst Guhl (1819-1862), Stier gained his subject knowledge and professional expertise primarily from independent study, personal mentoring, and travel. However, this all played out rather differently in Stier’s case. His initial training occurred in the architecture academy rather than the university, and his key mentors included artists and architects as well as scholars. Throughout his years of study in Germany, Paris, and Rome, Stier’s primary objective remained creative practice, ultimately settling on architecture after forays into sculpture and painting. His shift from architectural practice to teaching and research was due to both happenstance and lack of professional success, while his move from practical instruction in design to architectural history arose from both his own interest in history and a misalignment between his artistic outlook and the new practical direction of the architecture academy in the early 1830s. That Stier could make this shift from creative or professional practice to research and teaching shows the close connection that still existed between these fields and the key role of architects in the historical study of architecture. That the subsequent course of his career was determined by administrative decisions shows how much the separation of those fields was shaped by the institutions that came more and more to house and control them in the nineteenth century. Where architectural history was housed and who was responsible for it in early nineteenth-century Berlin is not easily discerned or described, given the complexly intertwined histories of the art and architecture academies and the university. The architecture academy was founded in 1799 as a semi-autonomous part of the art academy (Akademie der Künste) and existed as such until 1824, when it became an independent institution focused on the practical side of architecture, primarily utilitarian structures and engineering. Instruction in ‘aesthetic’ architecture, primarily large-scale public buildings, remained at the Akademie der Künste. Despite the separation, the curricula of the two academies were to complement one another, and Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841) played a significant role in shaping both from the 1820s into the 1830s. Architectural history Historiography, Dana Arnold, Elvan Altan Ergut, Belgin Turan Özkaya, eds., New York, Routledge, 2006, 171-182; Katherine Fischer Taylor, ‘Architecture’s place in art history: art or adjunct?’, Art Bulletin 83:2 (June 2001), 342-346; Alina Payne, ‘Architectural history and the history of art: a suspended dialogue’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 58:3 (1999), 292-299. For more focused overviews of the historiography of architectural history see Andrew Leach, What is Architectural History?, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2010, chapter 1; William Whyte, ‘How do buildings mean? Some issues of interpretation in the history of architecture’, History and Theory 45 (May 2006), 153-177; Simona Talenti, L’histoire de l’architecture en France: émergence d’une discipline (1863-1914), Paris, Picard, 2000; and the classic study by David Watkin, The Rise of Architectural History, Chicago, U of Chicago Press, 1980. 3 Eric Garberson Architectural History in the Architecture Academy: Wilhelm Stier was taught at both academies after the separation, as well as the university. Covering all three arts together as well as sculpture, painting, or other media separately, art history was taught only at the university and the art academy. However, where a given course was officially offered was in some respects irrelevant, as the boundaries between the university and the academies were officially open, at least in the early decades of the century. Students from one institution could and did attend classes at another, or the same course could be offered simultaneously at more than one. Similarly, the art historians examined in the earlier essays all taught both architectural history and art history, sometimes at more than one institution. Kugler, for example, taught several courses (including architectural history) simultaneously at the university and the art academy throughout the 1830s and 1840s, and until 1842 he held appointments at both. Again, the situation is somewhat