Ernst Friedrich Zwirner was an architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 born at Jakobswalde in Silesia

Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

 in 1802, he died at Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

 in 1861. He studied in Breslau and Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, and worked at the latter place under Karl Friedrich Schinkel

Karl Friedrich Schinkel

Karl Friedrich Schinkel was a Prussian architect, city planner, and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both neoclassical and neogothic buildings.-Biography:Schinkel was born in Neuruppin, Margraviate of...

.

From 1833 he was the leading architect of the cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

 at Cologne which was to be completed. At Cologne, he was next to Vincenz Statz the most important practical representative of Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

. From the time it was recognized that the completion of the great cathedral at Cologne was the task which would bring the highest honour to the Gothic

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

 style, so Schinkel's school was drawn on for men to carry out the work, first Friedrich Adolf Ahlert, and after his death, Zwirner being called to Cologne. Before long more confidence was placed in Zwirner than had been given to his predecessor, because he showed a more perceptive grasp of the work of the old masters. After the work of restoration was finished, he presented his plans for the completion of the structure in 1841 to King Frederick William IV; upon the approval of the plans the work began the next year. However, neither Zwirner nor his able successor Karl Eduard Richard Voigtel, who completed the work, succeeded in uniting the charm of free play of imagination with technical correctness and architectural sequence. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Zwirner was one of the finest judges of the medieval style.

What he had learned from his work on the cathedral of Cologne he used in designs of his own with the same fine skill and energy. His best building is probably the church of St. Apollinaris at Remagen, to which, however, the same objection of monotony of plan has been made. He also built a church at Mülheim

Mülheim

Mülheim an der Ruhr, also called "City on the River", is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen...

 on the Rhine, and one at Elberfeld

Elberfeld

Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929.-History:The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "elverfelde" was in a document of 1161...

. He restored the castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 of Argenfels on the Rhine, built the castle of Herdringen in the style of the ancient fortress castles on the Rhine for Count von Furstenberg, and also the Moyland Castle

Moyland Castle

Moyland Castle is a moated castle in Bedburg-Hau in the district of Kleve , one of the most important neo-Gothic buildings in North Rhine-Westphalia. Its name derives from the Dutch word Moiland which means "beautiful country"...

 near Cleves. His last work was the magnificent, 1861 Moorish Revival

Moorish Revival

Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of the Romanticist fascination with all things oriental...

 Glockengasse Synagogue

Glockengasse synagogue

The Synagogue in Glockengasse was a synagogue in Cologne, that was built according to the plans of the architect of Cologne Dome Ernst Friedrich Zwirner . It was built in the area of the previous Monastery of St...

at Cologne.

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