Georg Hermann Nicolai (10 January 1812 – 10 July 1881) was a German architect and educator, Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts on the Brühl Terrace in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

from 1850 until his death.

Life

Nicolai was born at

Torgau Torgau () is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen. Outside Germany, the town is best known as where on 25 April 1945, the United States and Soviet Armies first met near ...

, in the

Kingdom of Saxony The Kingdom of Saxony () was a German monarchy in Central Europe between 1806 and 1918, the successor of the Electorate of Saxony. It joined the Confederation of the Rhine after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, later joining the German ...

. He studied architecture at the

Academy with Bernhard Schreiber under Joseph Thürmer and later in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

under Friedrich von Gärtner. Travels to Italy included stints in 1834-5 and 1839-40. He served as ''Hofbaumeister'' in

Coburg Coburg ( , ) is a Town#Germany, town located on the Itz (river), Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Ernestine duchies, Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only ...

from 1841–45 and established a private practice in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

from 1845-48. In mid-summer 1850 he succeeded

Gottfried Semper Gottfried Semper (; 29 November 1803 – 15 May 1879) 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 ...

as Professor of the ''Bauatelier'' of the

Dresden Academy of Fine Arts The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German language, German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institutio ...

many months after Semper had participated in building a barricade in the May Uprising of the previous year. Nicolai brought a fine sensibility to the reinterpretation of Quattrocento-style Neorenaissance architecture in

in his years at the Academy, and was an extremely popular teacher. Many of his students went on to distinguished careers in

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

and beyond. He died at died Bodenbach (Elbe), aged 69. Upon his death, his former pupil Constantin Lipsius (1832-1894) was named his replacement.

Principal works

*Seebach Residence (1839) *Villa Struve (1851-2) *Villa Meyer (1867–69) *Reconstruction of Prince George's Palace on the Zinzendorfstrasse (1855-7) *Villa Seiler (1867-8) All of these were destroyed during the Allied

bombing of Dresden in World War II The bombing of Dresden was a joint British and American Area bombardment, aerial bombing attack on the city of Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony, during World War II. In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 772 heavy ...

References

English

*Berry, J. Duncan. The Legacy of Gottfried Semper: Studies in ''Späthistorismus''
Ph. D. Diss
, Brown University, 1989): .

German

*Anon., ''Geschichte des akademischen Architekten-Club Akanthus. Gedenk-Schrift zum 30jährigen Stiftungsfeste 1894'' (Dresden 1894). *Anon., "Herrmann Georg (sic) Nicolai," '' Dresdner Anzeiger'' CLI/229 (August 17, 1881): . *Helas, Volker. ''Sempers Dresden. Die Bauten und die Schüler'' (Dresden, 2003): , 47 n9. *Lier, H. A. in ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' 52 (1906): . *Lipsius, Constantin. "Georg Hermann Nicolai," ''Deutsche Bauzeitung'' 16 (1882): , 314-7. *Milde, Kurt. ''Neorenaissance in der deutschen Architektur des 19. Jahrhunderts. Grundlagen, Wesen und Gültigkeit'' (Dresden 1981): , 225, 260. *Neiss, A. (ed.), ''Architektonischen Entwürfe aus dem Atelier des Prof. Hermann Nicolai in Dresden''. 2nd ed. (Berlin, n. d., a. 1883. *Nicolai, Georg Hermann. ''Das Ornament der italienischen Kunst des 15. Jahrhunderts. Eine Sammlung der hervorragendsten Motive'' (Dresden, 1882). Engl. trans. as: ''The Ornament of Italian Art of the XV. Century. A Collection of Superior Specimens'' (New York, 1914). {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicolai, Georg Hermann 1812 births 1881 deaths People from Torgau People from the Kingdom of Saxony 19th-century German architects Academic staff of the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts