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Huh. At a first glance at the photo on top of the article, I thought: Is this Munich's University with a different yard layout and statues? (Would not be surpri
by anyfoo 4y ago
Huh. At a first glance at the photo on top of the article, I thought: Is this Munich's University with a different yard layout and statues? (Would not be surprising with WW2 in between, you can still see some of the shrapnel damage on one of the walls.)
But no, turns out, it's Berlin's Humboldt University.
Unfortunately, I can absolutely cannot find a picture of LMU's building taken from a similar angle, but while it turns out some details are very different, the resemblance in the layout and the overall style is striking.
Wonder whether that's on purpose. Munich University's main building is actually pretty young, having been erected in 1835, even though the university itself is over 500 years old.
- est31 4y agoThe Humboldt University's palace was originally not meant as a university building but instead was built in 1748-1753 for one of Friedrich II's brothers prince Heinrich, who was as his brother, gay. In fact the building was designed to have separate rooms, entrances and staircases for Heinrich and his wife, so that they wouldn't have to see each other. The university moved into that building in 1809 upon its founding by the new king Friedrich Wilhelm III. This was 7 years after Heinrich's death. The LMU on the other hand is way older, but the building is younger than the one of the HU Berlin: it was built in 1835. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauptgeb%C3%A4ude_der_Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit%C3%A4t_M%C3%BCnchen https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauptgeb%C3%A4ude_der_Ludwig-M... https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_von_Preu%C3%9Fen_(1726%E2%80%931802)#Pers%C3%B6nlichkeit https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_von_Preu%C3%9Fen_(172... https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_des_Prinzen_Heinrich https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_des_Prinzen_Heinrich
- anyfoo 4y agoAh, thanks for the context to the Humboldt University. That makes it even more curious for me why the LMU building looks so similar, at least from the exterior. > The LMU on the other hand is way older, but the building is younger than the one of the HU Berlin: it was built in 1835. That's what I said, yeah. So given that, I'm wondering whether LMU's building was purposefully built to look similar to Humboldt's? Or maybe it's just coincidence, or was just common to shape buildings that way for a long time.
- est31 4y agoYeah both are U-shaped, at least from one side. I'm not sure why this commonality is the case, but it's not unseen to have U-shaped buildings. Even the Kanzleramt is U-shaped, the Russian embassy in Berlin, or the BND headquarters.
- Archelaos 4y ago> Or maybe it's just coincidence, or was just common to shape buildings that way for a long time. They share an outline common to many palaces from the 18th to the mid 19th century. See for example also the palace of Mannheim that (in part) houses the University of Mannheim and was built roughly at the same time as Prinz-Heinrich-Palais: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Mannheim#/media/Datei:SchlossEhrenhof_2017.jpg https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Mannheim#/media/Datei:... When you look closer, you can observe that the individual architectonic elements are quite distinct: Frederician Rococo[1] in Berlin vs Rundbogenstil (round-arch style)[2] with a later (1900s) large extension in Neoclassical[3] style in Munich. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rococo#Frederician_Rococo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rococo#Frederician_Rococo [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundbogenstil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundbogenstil [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassicism#Architecture_and_the_decorative_arts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassicism#Architecture_and...
- 082349872349872 4y agoBefore electric lights and air conditioning, it helped to compose buildings of tall, narrow, wings; this leads to many U's and H's and squares, etc.