Fake Gothic

The case of Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) is particularly telling in the context of this discussion, because Schinkel was – to a certain extent – a convert to (and later also away from) the Gothic. Schinkel confronted the Gothic for the entire span of his professional life, and the changes in his position toward it coincided with the evolutionary shifts of his architectural thinking. A detailed description of all of the chapters of this story is not possible here, so I will concentrate on just a few episodes: his proposal for the mausoleum for Queen Luise (1810); the Befreiungsdom, or Cathedral of Freedom (1814); the Gertraudskirche in the Spittelmarkt (1820); and the projects for the Friedrichswerdersche Kirche (1821–30). Strangely enough, Schinkel started to be an enthusiast of the Gothic during his Grand Tour (1803–5). In Italy, Schinkel drew several buildings that he described in his notes as gotisch, or as belonging to an unspecified sarazenischer Stil. Although the terminology is quite generic, it is evident that the Gothic and the sarazenisch were, for the young Schinkel, synonymous with the exotic, bizarre and marvellous.