Eighteenth-century architectural schools in Germany

Abstract

Despite the fact that today there is a fairly comprehensive material on the architecture of Western Europe in the 18th century and a significant amount of research conducted regarding the outstanding architects of that time. There is not a lot of information available regarding the formation of architectural education in Germany, as a system of educational institutions, or at least this information has not been synthesized to give a clear picture of the processes that took place in this timeframe. The main aim of this article is to outline a complete chronological picture of the events that took place and to enable the reader to trace the challenging path of the development of architecture from a craft to the academic discipline. Given the turbulent political processes in eighteenth-century Europe, particularly in Germany, the article highlights some political developments which, in turn, had a huge impact on the development of culture, education and social life in the country. The main achievement of the 18th century in the field of education was the introduction of a compulsory state examination to obtain a certificate of higher education. A mandatory special training requirement for construction majors was also introduced. During this period, several textbooks were developed and published. The academies were actively gaining and consolidating their influence in both in education and science. The first debates about the importance of art and science in the training of architects appeared at this time, which is up-to-date in contemporary debates as well.