Greek Revival Emergence in Germany and France

The Greek Revival influence in Germany was primarily witnessed in Berlin and Munich. Doric was considered the fashionable style and was patronized by Frederick William II and Ludwig I to help ensure their respective cities were awarded the title - capital of Germany.

The earliest Greek building was the Brandenburg Gate. It was completed in 1791 by Carl Gotthard Langhans, who modeled it after the Propylea. Ten years after Frederick’s death, the Berlin Akademie held a competition to build a monument to the king promoting “morality and patriotism.” Friedrich Gilly’s design for a temple raised above the Leipziger Platz embodied the grand idealism Germans sought in Greek architecture.

In 1813, Karl Friedrich Schinkel left his mark on Berlin after the end of the French occupation. His work on what is now the Altes Museum, Schauspielhaus and Neue Wache transformed the city. Similarly, in Munich, Leo von Klenze’s Glyptothek and Walhalla helped to implement Gilly’s vision of an orderly and moral German world.

In France, the Greek Revival never gained popularity with the public. Charles de Wailly’s crypt in the church of St Leu-St Gilles, and Claude Nicolas Ledoux’s Barriere des Bonshommes, were some of the few seen to completion. Marc-Antoine Laugier’s philosophies to discern the principles of the Greeks, helped influence the French to see little value in revival architecture.

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