German Emperor
The German Emperor was the official title of the head of state and hereditary ruler of the German Empire. A chosen term, it was introduced with the 1 January 1871 constitution and lasted until the official abdication of Wilhelm II on 28 November 1918; the Holy Roman Emperor is sometimes called "German Emperor" when the historical context is clear, as derived from the Holy Roman Empire's official name of "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" from 1512. Following the revolution of 1918, the function of head of state was succeeded by the President of the Reich, beginning with Friedrich Ebert. In the wake of the revolutions of 1848 and during the German Empire, King Frederick William IV of Prussia was offered the title "Emperor of the Germans" by the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849, but declined it as "not the Parliament's to give". Frederick William believed that only the German princes had the right to make such an offer, in accordance with the traditions of the Holy Roman Empire; the title was chosen by Otto von Bismarck, Minister President of Prussia and Chancellor of the North German Confederation, after discussion which continued until the proclamation of King William I of Prussia as emperor at the Palace of Versailles during the Siege of Paris.
William accepted this title grudgingly on 18 January, having preferred "Emperor of Germany". However, that would have signaled a territorial sovereignty unacceptable to the South German monarchs, as well as a claim to lands outside his reign."Emperor of the Germans", as had been proposed at the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849, was ruled out by William as he considered himself a king who ruled by divine right and chosen "By the Grace of God", not by the people in a popular monarchy. But more in general, William was unhappy about a crown that looked artificial, having been created by a constitution, he was afraid. The king of Prussia was since 1867 the bearer of the Bundespräsidium; the new constitution of 1 January 1871, following Reichstag and Bundesrath decisions on 9/10 December, transformed the North German Confederation into the German Empire. This empire was a federal monarchy. Under the imperial constitution, the empire was a federation of states under the permanent presidency of the King of Prussia.
Thus, the imperial crown was directly tied to the Prussian crown—something Wilhelm II discovered in the aftermath of World War I. He erroneously believed. With the war's end, he conceded that he could not remain emperor, but thought he could at least retain his Prussian crown; the German Emperors had an extensive list of titles and claims that reflected the geographic expanse and diversity of the lands ruled by the House of Hohenzollern. His Imperial and Royal Majesty William I, By the Grace of God, German Emperor and King of Prussia, his Imperial and Royal Majesty Frederick III, By the Grace of God, German Emperor and King of Prussia, Margrave of Brandenburg, Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of Hohenzollern, Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz, Grand Duke of the Lower Rhine and of Posen, Duke of Saxony, of Angria, of Westphalia, of Pomerania and of Lunenburg, Duke of Schleswig, of Holstein and of Crossen, Duke of Magdeburg, of Bremen, of Guelderland and of Jülich and Berg, Duke of the Wends and the Kashubians, of Lauenburg and of Mecklenburg, Landgrave of Hesse and in Thuringia, Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia, Prince of Orange, of Rugen, of East Friesland, of Paderborn and of Pyrmont, Prince of Halberstadt, of Münster, of Minden, of Osnabrück, of Hildesheim, of Verden, of Kammin, of Fulda, of Nassau and of Moers, Princely Count of Henneberg, Count of the Mark, of Ravensberg, of Hohenstein, of Tecklenburg and of Lingen, Count of Mansfeld, of Sigmaringen and of Veringen, Lord of Frankfurt.
His Imperial and Royal Majesty William II, By the Grace of God, German Emperor and King of Prussia, Margrave of Brandenburg, Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of Hohenzollern, Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz, Grand Duke of the Lower Rhine and of Posen, Duke of Saxony, of Angria, of Westphalia, of Pomerania and of Lunenburg, Duke of Schleswig, of Holstein and of Crossen, Duke of Magdeburg, of Bremen, of Guelderland and of Jülich and Berg, Duke of the Wends and the Kashubians, of Lauenburg and of Mecklenburg, Landgrave of Hesse and in Thuringia, Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia, Prince of Orange, of Rugen, of East Friesland, of Paderborn and of Pyrmont, Prince of Halber
Baroque Revival architecture
The Baroque Revival known as Neo-Baroque, was an architectural style of the late 19th century. The term is used to describe architecture which displays important aspects of Baroque style, but is not of the Baroque period proper—i.e. The 17th and 18th centuries. Elements of the Baroque architectural tradition were an essential part of the curriculum of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the pre-eminent school of architecture in the second half of the 19th century, are integral to the Beaux-Arts architecture it engendered both in France and abroad. An ebullient sense of European imperialism encouraged an official architecture to reflect it in Britain and France, in Germany and Italy the Baroque revival expressed pride in the new power of the unified state. Akasaka Palace, Japan Alferaki Palace, Russia Ashton Memorial, England Belfast City Hall, Northern Ireland Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace, Saint Petersburg, Russia Bode Museum, Germany British Columbia Parliament Buildings, British Columbia, Canada Burgtheater, Austria Christiansborg Palace, Denmark Cluj-Napoca National Theatre, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Ortaköy Mosque, Turkey Dolmabahçe Palace, Turkey The Elms Mansion, Rhode Island, United States National Theatre, Norway Palais Garnier, France Rosecliff Mansion, Rhode Island, United States Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium Semperoper, Germany Sofia University rectorate, Bulgaria Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Poland St. Barbara's Church, New York, United States St. John Cantius Church, United States Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, New York City, United States Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Ireland Cathedral of Salta, Argentina Széchenyi thermal bath, Hungary Volkstheater, Austria National Art Gallery of Bulgaria, Bulgaria Wenckheim Palace, Hungary Stefánia Palace, Hungary Gran Teatro de La Habana, Cuba Old Parliament Building, Sri Lanka Altare della Patria, Italy House of the National Assembly of Serbia, Serbia.
Durban City Hall, South AfricaThere are number of post-modern buildings with a style that might be called "Baroque", for example the Dancing House in Prague by Vlado Milunić and Frank Gehry, who have described it as "new Baroque". Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer Arthur Meinig Sir Edwin Lutyens Members of the Armenian Balyan family Charles Garnier Baroque List of Baroque architecture Second Empire architecture Beaux-Arts architecture Edwardian Baroque architecture Wilhelminism James Stevens Curl. A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. 2000. — Encyclopedia.com. Accessed 3 Jan. 2010
National Theatre of Strasbourg
The National Theatre of Strasbourg is a palace building on Strasbourg's Place de la République, now occupied by a theatre company of the same name, the National Theatre of Strasbourg. The TNS was built to house the legislative assembly of the regional parliament of Alsace-Lorraine, after the area came under German control with the Treaty of Frankfurt, it was built between 1888 and 1889 in Neorenaissance style by the architect partners August Hartel and Skjold Neckelmann. In 1919, when Alsace-Lorraine returned to France, the French Government offered the building to the city of Strasbourg, which in turn offered it to the Strasbourg music conservatory, at the behest of its new director Guy Ropartz, refusing to occupy the Palais du Rhin opposite. On 25 September 1944, the east wing of the building that contained the Chamber of the Assembly was destroyed by American bombing, it was reconstructed between 1950 and 1957, this time with a theatre auditorium replacing the assembly chamber. Michel Saint-Denis, the director of the National Theatre of Strasbourg at the time, entrusted this work to the architect Pierre Sonrel, who had worked with him in London restoring The Old Vic, which itself had been badly damaged by wartime bombing.
In 1995, the façade and the entrance on Place de la République were classified as a Monument historique. In 1922, the Conservatory of Strasbourg was moved into the upper part of the building and several teaching rooms were built in as well as a concert hall. In 1995, the building wasn't deemed suitable enough for teaching music any more and the conservatory had to move out; the concert hall has remained unused since. In 2016, the monumental pipe organ, a 1963 work by organ builder Curt Schwenkedel, was restored and moved into Saint Stephen’s Church, where it started a new life as a church organ instead of a concert organ; the Hartel and Neckelmann building houses two rooms: the salle Bernard-Marie Koltès and the salle Hubert Gignoux. Two other theater rooms used by the TNS are located in Espace Klaus Michael Grüber in rue Jacques Kablé; this article incorporates text translated from the French Wikipedia article on the Alsace-Lorraine Diet building as of 4 December 2013. TNS website
Palais Universitaire, Strasbourg
The Palais Universitaire in Strasbourg is a large, neo-Renaissance style building, constructed between 1879 and 1884 under the direction of the German architect Otto Warth. It was inaugurated in 1884 by Emperor of Germany. Through Avenue de la Liberté, it faces the monumental former imperial palace; the building served for several decades as the centre of the new imperial University of Strasbourg. The old university transferred from the buildings that it had occupied for centuries at the Jean Sturm Gymnasium to the new ones located in the Neustadt; the architect, Otto Warth, from Karlsruhe, was young when he was entrusted with the design of the building. He had just returned from a one-year study visit to Italy, his passion for Italian classical architecture is reflected in some of the Italianate features of the Palais. One of the most distinctive features of the building is the Aula, which measures 25 m by 29 m and 16 m high, which Warth modeled on the Villa Garzoni in Pontecasale, Candiana.
It is decorated with a monumental seated statue of Ramses II, 2.15 m high, brought in 1933 by Pierre Montet. In 2012, the Aula was dedicated to Marc Bloch, former professor at the university, shot by the Nazis in 1944; the Palais is striking for the statuary of its façades, which pay hommage to a number of scientists, theologians and thinkers with Germanic connections, thirty-six in all, including Luther, Calvin, Kant, Lessing, Gauss. Two allegorical statues representing Germania and Argentina, the former removed in 1918 and the latter destroyed in 1945, were replaced in their respective niche on the façade in 2014, after having been restored and/or replicated based on photos. On 21 May 1990, the Aula and the main stairways were classified as a monument historique; the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe held its first session in this building, from 8 August to 10 September 1949. The Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, reputedly the oldest university press in France, has had its headquarters in the building since it was founded in 1920.
The Palace's basement houses the Gypsothèque de Strasbourg known as Musée des moulages. This classical cast collection was initiated with the founding of the Kaiser-Wilhelms-Universität in 1872 by Adolf Michaelis, a distinguished classical scholar and art history pioneer. Next to casts of works like Harmodius and Aristogeiton, Apollo Belvedere, Aphrodite of Cnidus and the metopes of the Parthenon, the museum displays casts of works by Antoine Bourdelle; the collection is the second largest cast collection in France and the largest university cast collection of France. The collections were moved into the Palace's basement in 1939, with the outbreak of World War II, have stayed there since, although plans have periodically been made to move them into a separate building. Media related to Palais universitaire de Strasbourg at Wikimedia Commons Palais Universitaire on archi-strasbourg.org Strasbourg University Press
Villa Schutzenberger
The Villa Schutzenberger known as Hôtel Schutzenberger is an Art Nouveau hôtel particulier on allée de la Robertsau in the Neustadt district of Strasbourg, in the French department of the Bas-Rhin. It has been classified as a Monument historique since 1975; the Villa is the seat of the European Audiovisual Observatory since 1992. This ample villa was built for the owner of the Schutzenberger brewery, Louis-Oscar Schützenberger, by Jules Berninger and his brother in law, Gustave Krafft, two prolific local architects who worked together between 1895 and 1905. Work on the villa started in 1897 and it was finished in 1900. Inspired by Italianate architecture in its shape and the design of its garden, it is one of the most lavish and cited examples of Art Nouveau architecture in Strasbourg. In spite of this, due to the financial decline of the Schutzenberger brewery, the villa was sold and threatened with demolition in 1972, it was saved by the municipality but stood empty until 1978. The ground floor was rented by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which became renter of the whole building in 1989.
The Villa Schutzenberger has been restored since. It is not open for tourists apart on special days such as European Heritage Days. Media related to Villa Schutzenberger at Wikimedia Commons Villa Schutzenberger – 76 Allée de la Robertsau on archi-wiki.org Recht, Roland.
Palais du Rhin
The Palais du Rhin, the former Kaiserpalast, is a building situated in the German quarter of Strasbourg dominating the Place de la République with its massive dome. A huge building, it and the surrounding gardens, as well as the neighbouring stables, are an outstanding landmark of 19th-century Prussian architecture. After the Franco-Prussian War, Strasbourg German, was faced with the question of an official residence for the Kaiser; the decision was made to create a building symbolic of imperial power, after much debate, a square Neo-Renaissance design was chosen, remotely inspired by the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The architect was Hermann Eggert, who had built, among other things, the Observatory of Strasbourg. Work began on March 22, 1884 in honour of William I's 87th birthday, construction took five years; the project received a good deal of criticism, with many questioning the need and use of the building, its appearance, its price of three million marks. Inaugurated by William II in August 1889, the palace housed the emperor for twelve visits down to 1914.
During the First World War, the building was converted into a military hospital and in 1920 it adopted its current name when the oldest of the European institutions, the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, moved in. In 1923, the palace passed hands to the French state and today houses the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles of Grand Est. Transformed into the'Kommandantur' by the Nazis between 1940 and 1945, the building was recaptured by the troops of General Leclerc, who transformed it into their general headquarters, it was there that he wrote his proclamation announcing the realization of his oath at Kufra, proclaiming that he would fight until the French flag flew again over the cathedrals of Strasbourg and Metz. Threatened with destruction in the 1970s, the palace, classified as monument historique since 1993 houses the Direction régionale des Affaires culturelles of Alsace. In 2008, the Palais was used as the setting of the Paris Gestapo headquarters for the shooting of the French TV mini-series "La Résistance".
Architectural description and photos Exterior and interior views
Grande Île (Strasbourg)
The Grande Île is an island that lies at the historic centre of the city of Strasbourg in France. Its name means "Large Island", derives from the fact that it is surrounded on one side by the main channel of the Ill River and on the other side by the Canal du Faux-Rempart, a canalised arm of that river. Grand Île was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. At the time, the International Council on Monuments and Sites noted that Grand Île is "an old quarter that exemplifies medieval cities". Grande Île is sometimes referred to as "ellipse insulaire" because of its shape, it measures some 1.25 kilometres by 0.75 kilometres at broadest. At the centre of the island lies Place Kléber, the city's central square. Further south is Strasbourg Cathedral, the world's fourth-tallest church and an ornate example of 15th-century Gothic architecture. At the western end of the island is the quarter of Petite France, the former home of the city's tanners and fishermen, now one of Strasbourg's main tourist attractions.
The Grande Île houses the former fluvial customs house Ancienne Douane. Besides the cathedral, the Grande Île is home to four other centuries-old churches: St. Thomas, St. Pierre-le-Vieux, St. Pierre-le-Jeune, St. Étienne. Being the historical center of Strasbourg and the seat of local secular power, it houses the city's most imposing 18th-century hôtels particuliers and palaces, including the Palais Rohan, the Hôtel de Hanau, Hôtel des Deux-Ponts, Hôtel de Klinglin, Hôtel d'Andlau-Klinglin, Hôtel de Neuwiller, among many others; the island is home to the Episcopal palace of the Archdiocese of Strasbourg. To mark Grande Île's status as a World Heritage Site, 22 brass plates were placed on the bridges giving access to the island. UNESCO
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