Rundbogenstil (round-arch style) is a nineteenth-century historic revival style of architecture popular in the German-speaking lands and the German diaspora. It combines elements of Byzantine, Romanesque, and Renaissance architecture with particular stylistic motifs. [1] It forms a German branch of Romanesque Revival architecture sometimes used in other countries.
The style was the deliberate creation of German architects seeking a German national style of architecture, particularly Heinrich Hübsch (1795–1863). [2] [3] [4] It emerged in Germany as a response to and reaction against the neo-Gothic style that had come to the fore in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. By adopting the smooth facade of late antique and medieval church architecture, it aimed to extend and develop the noble simplicity and quiet grandeur of neo-classicism, while moving in a direction more suited to the rise of industrialism and the emergence of German nationalism. Hallmarks of the style, in addition to the rounded arches from which it takes its name, include "eyebrows" over the windows and inverted crenelation under the eaves.
Rundbogenstil was employed for a number of railway stations, including those in Berlin, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Munich, Tübingen, and Völklingen. These were typically "first-generation" stations (built between 1835 and 1870); some were razed to be replaced by larger buildings. Those in Berlin, Tübingen, Königs Wusterhausen, Crimmitschau, and Hersfeld are still extant, while the Bavarian station in Leipzig is partially preserved.
Rundbogenstil was widely adopted in Central European synagogue design of the late nineteenth century. The first in this style was the Kassel Synagogue designed by Albrecht Rosengarten, a member of the Jewish congregation in Kassel, Electorate of Hesse, and completed in 1839. [5] An early example in the United States is the Gates of Heaven Synagogue in Madison, Wisconsin, built in 1863 and designed by August Kutzbock, an immigrant from Bremen, Germany. Kutzbock also (co)designed secular buildings employing Rundbogenstil, such as the Carrie Pierce House (1857) and the Van Slyke/Keenan House (1858) in Madison.
Rundbogenstil architecture was influential in England, with Alfred Waterhouse's buildings for what is now called the Natural History Museum (originally the British Museum Natural History Collection) in London showing a direct and self-conscious emulation of the style. [6]
The Rundbogenstil was also widely employed in Belgium, for public buildings as well as for churches. A keen promotor of Neoclassicism and the Rundbogenstil in Belgium was architect Lodewijk Roelandt (1786–1864), who lived in the city of Ghent. Among his achievements in Rundbogenstil are St Anne's Church (Sint-Annakerk (Gent)), the riding school Arena Van Vletingen, both in Ghent, and the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-van-Bijstand-der-Christenenkerk (Sint-Niklaas) at Sint-Niklaas.
Gottfried Semper was a German architect, art critic, and professor of architecture who designed and built the Semper Opera House in Dresden between 1838 and 1841. In 1849 he took part in the May Uprising in Dresden and was put on the government's wanted list. He fled first to Zürich and later to London. He returned to Germany after the 1862 amnesty granted to the revolutionaries.
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to feature more simplified arches and windows than their historic counterparts.
The Fasanenstrasse Synagogue was a former liberal Jewish congregation and synagogue, that was located at 79–80 Fasanenstrasse off Kurfürstendamm, in the affluent neighbourhood of Charlottenburg, in Berlin, Germany. Completed on 26 August 1912, the synagogue was located close to the Berlin Stadtbahn and Zoo Station.
Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th century, part of a widening vocabulary of articulated decorative ornament drawn from historical sources beyond familiar classical and Gothic modes. Neo-Moorish architecture drew on elements from classic Moorish architecture and, as a result, from the wider Islamic architecture.
Hersfeld Abbey was an important Benedictine imperial abbey in the town of Bad Hersfeld in Hesse, Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Geisa, Haune and Fulda. The ruins are now a medieval festival venue.
The New Synagogue was a former Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Breslau, Germany. It was one of the largest synagogues in the German Empire and a centre of Reform Judaism in Breslau. Designed by Edwin Oppler in the Romanesque Revival style and completed in 1872, the synagogue was destroyed during the Kristallnacht pogrom which swept across Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938.
The New Synagogue was a former Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Oppeln, Germany. The synagogue was destroyed by Nazis on November 9, 1938, during Kristallnacht.
The New Synagogue was a former Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Gleiwitz, Germany.
Heinrich Hübsch was a German architect. After studies in Heidelberg (1813–15) and at Friedrich Weinbrenner's school of architecture in Karlsruhe (1815–17) he traveled extensively in Greece and Italy (1817–24). In 1831 he was appointed Oberbaurat at Karlsruhe. He designed many churches and other public buildings, mainly in the Grand Duchy of Baden, and is also known for his writings.
The Semper Synagogue, also known as the Dresden Synagogue or Old Synagogue, was a Jewish synagogue, located in Dresden, in the Saxony region of Germany. Designed by Gottfried Semper and built from 1838 to 1840 in the Romanesque Revival and Moorish Revival styles, the synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis on November 9, 1938, during Kristallnacht.
The Worms Synagogue, also known as Rashi Shul, is a Jewish congregation and synagogue located in the northern part of the city center of Worms, in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany.
A Kunstgewerbeschule was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for these schools. From the 1920s and after World War II, most of them either merged into universities or closed, although some continued until the 1970s.
The Krnov Synagogue is a former Jewish synagogue, located on Soukenická Street in Krnov, in the Czech Republic. Completed in 1871, the former synagogue is one of only three surviving synagogue buildings in the Moravian-Silesian Region.
Albrecht Rosengarten was among the first Jewish Germans permitted to train and practice as an architect and the first to design synagogues. His work was a major influence on the Rundbogenstil design of synagogues in Central Europe and abroad in the second half of the nineteenth century.
The Kassel Synagogue was a former Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on Untere Königsstraße, in Kassel, Hesse, Germany. The second synagogue for the congregation was completed in 1839 and set ablaze by the Nazis on November 9, 1938, during the Kristallnacht pogrom.
Bad Hersfeld station is a through station in Bad Hersfeld in the German state of Hesse on the Frankfurt–Göttingen railway. The first station was opened in 1866 and the current station building was completed in 1883. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 3 station. It is a stop for Intercity-Express and Intercity services and is a public transport node for northern Hesse.
The Carrie Pierce House is an elegant house built about 1857 in Madison, Wisconsin, for Alexander McDonnell, one of the builders of the third Wisconsin State Capitol. In 1972 the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and, in 1985, converted to the Mansion Hill Inn.
The Karlsruhe Synagogue was a Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Karlsruhe, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Designed by Friedrich Weinbrenner in the Egyptian Revival style, the synagogue was completed in 1798 and demolished in 1871.
Alexander Saeltzer. Later journeyed across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas and was a German-American architect active in the United States in New York City during the 1850s and 1860s, before the American Civil War (1861-1865). His work includes the prominent Anshe Chesed Synagogue, the Academy of Music, the Theatre Francais, the Duncan, Sherman & Company building and the South Wing of the Romanesque revival style structure at 425 Lafayette Street in Manhattan, built between 1853 and 1881, to be later used as the Astor Library.
Edwin Oppler was a German architect of Jewish ancestry, and a major representative of the Neo-Gothic style. He designed several synagogues, throughout Germany, all of which were destroyed by rioters on Kristallnacht.
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