Karl Friedrich Schinkel

Karl Friedrich Schinkel , 1781-1841, German architect and painter. A member of the Berlin Academy, he became a professor in 1820. He also worked in lithography, etching, and illustration, but he attained real distinction as the official state architect of Prussia. Schinkel designed primarily in the neoclassical style, and his buildings have been consistently admired by later generations of architects for their rational organization of parts and geometrical clarity. Among the public buildings, castles, and country residences he designed are the Royal Guard House (1816-18), Royal Theater (1818-21), and Altes Museum (1822-30) in Berlin, and the Church of St. Nicholas (1829-37) and the Casino (1823) in Potsdam.

Schinkel, Karl Friedrich (1781–1841). German architect, painter, and designer, active mainly in Berlin. Schinkel was the greatest German architect of the 19th century, but until 1815, when he gained a senior appointment in the Public Works Department of Prussia, he worked mainly as a painter and stage designer. His paintings are highly Romantic landscapes somewhat in the spirit of Friedrich, although more anecdotal in detail (Gothic Cathedral by a River, 1813–14, Alte NG, Berlin). He continued working as a stage designer until the 1830s, and in this field ranks among the greatest artists of his period. His most famous designs were for Mozart's Magic Flute (1815, Schinkelmuseum, Berlin), in which he combined the clarity and logic of his architectural style with a feeling of mystery and fantasy.