George Bähr

:This page is about the German architect; George Baehr is also the name of an American physician.

Life

George Bähr was born into a poor family, the son of a weaver. The village priest, however, helped pay for his education, and Bähr was able to become a carpenter?s apprentice in Lauenstein, Saxony.

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In 1690, Bähr went to Dresden to start work as a carpenter. His dream was to go to Italy and see the famous buildings there, so in his spare time he studied mechanics, calling himself both an artist and a mechanic, and designing not only castles and palaces but also sketches of organs.

Related Topics:
1690 - Italy - Mechanics - Organs

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In 1705, aged 39, Bahr was named Dresden?s City Master Carpenter, although he did not even have a master carpenter?s certificate. One of Bähr?s main goals was to modernise the city?s churches. He believed that the existing buildings did no justice to Protestant church services in particular.

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His first building was the parish church in the Loschwitz area of Dresden, a building in the shape of a stretched-out octagon, completed in 1708.

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The Dresden Waisenhauskirche (Orphanage Church) was built around 1710, followed by the Dreifaltigkeitskirche (Trinity Church) in Schmiedeberg, in the Ore Mountains, 1713-1716. Between 1719 and 1726 the church in Forchheim was built, as well as more in Königstein, Hohnstein and Kesselsdorf (all in Saxony) and a considerable amount of housing in Dresden.

Related Topics:
1710 - Ore Mountains - 1713 - 1716 - 1719 - 1726

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But Bähr is most famous for designing the Frauenkirche in Dresden. He was given the task in 1722; in 1726, the design was approved and work began. From 1730, Bähr became the first in Germany to go by the title of ?Architect?.

Related Topics:
Frauenkirche - 1722 - 1730

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Whilst working on the Frauenkirche, Bähr also oversaw the building of the Dreikönigskirche (Church of the Three Kings) in Dresden?s Neustadt area ? the church had however been designed by Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann.

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George Bähr did not live to see the Frauenkirche completed ? he died, aged 72, on March 16 1738. He was buried in the church?s vaults. In 2004, a memorial was built to him in the castle at Lauenstein, where he learned his trade.

Related Topics:
March 16 - 1738

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