"Schinkels network and his designs and expert's reports for buildings in german Bundesstaaten outside Prussia – cultural exchange as a contribution of competition between cultural states in the 19th. century" (short titel of the first confirmation ME 1857/2-1)

• Applicant: Dr. Andreas-Horst Meinecke
• Subject Area: Art History ; Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology ; Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 436507091

The continuation project delievers important discoveries of Schinkels court- and professional network as well as the designs for objects in german Bundesstaaten too. The catalogue of buildings contains sources and plans of their construction history and details on commissioners. Among them the Stadttheater Hamburg, the Zeughaus Hannover, the Augusteum Leipzig, the Altstädtische Wache Dresden and the Hoftheater Gotha are the most outstanding. Newly discovered source material and innovative questions outside of art history have given rise to new topics that are included in the panorama of Schinkel’s structural network with contemporary artists, diplomats and merchants. We establish the section A, the expanded topics and B, the new topics. The 4 subjects in section A include the 11 additional discovered designs for non-Prussian federal states; the court contacts of Schinkel that grew through the tea parties at the Crown Prince’s; the Berlin theatre network and the contacts with Polish nobility. The new topics in section B concern Schinkel’s undiscovered connections in the Rhineland, to Hamburg, with Saxony, with the Prussian military leaders, and with the intellectuals C. F. Rumohr and K. A. Böttiger, which are to be researched. For the first time the valuations about Schinkel’s achievements can be documented by source materials. The criticism of the Kassel theorist J. H. Wolff, the estimations of W. A. Shukowskis and C. von Rother and the evaluations of Schinkel’s designs in the "Kunstblatt" are to be researched. The analysis of letters from Nobile and the diary of Hittorff’s journey 1821 serves to present the view from abroad. It is possible to discover the crossroads surrounding Schinkel’s appointment to the Senate of the Berlin "Academy of Arts" as well as his uninvestigated relationship with the University of Königsberg. Schinkel's Berlin network around the "Verein der Kunstfreunde im Preußischen Staate" and his exchange with Chateauneuf, Moller and Geutebrück is presented for the first time. This succeeds in illuminating the genesis of Schinkel’s "branding" to a prussian export model through his innovations. It is also possible to prove a political reason for a comission to Schinkel and the choice of design models from foreign architects for reasons of design protection against criticism. Schinkel’s early handling of baroque buildings can be proven by means of expert reports. The analysis of the letters of S. Boisserée enables us not only to reconstruct the interactions within the early preservation of monuments in Prussia and other German Bundesstaaten, but also to classify Schinkel’s pioneering theoretical stimulus and his practical measures that began later than those of Wallraf, Moller and Boisserée. The continuation project provide contributions to cultural transfer and to Schinkel’s role within the strenghtening of Prussia as cultural leading power. A selection of documents will be stored in the TU Data Repositorium "DepositOnce".

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professorin Dr. Magdalena Bushart