Full Name: Adler, Friedrich
Other Names:
- Johann Heinrich Friedrich Adler
Gender: male
Date Born: 1827
Date Died: 1908
Place Born: Berlin, Germany
Place Died: Berlin, Germany
Home Country/ies: Germany
Subject Area(s): ancient, archaeology, architecture (object genre), German Medieval architecture styles, German Medieval styles, Medieval (European), Northern European Medieval styles, and sculpture (visual works)
Overview
Architectural historian, architect and archaeologist; specialist in ancient excavations, and medieval German architecture. Adler attended the Berlin Kunstakademie beginning in 1841. In 1846 he continued at the University of Berlin (Bauakademie). From 1854 he taught there under Ferdinand von Arnim (1814-1856) and from 1859 as a Dozent for the history of architecture. He was made professor at the Akademie in 1861 succeeding in the position previously held by Wilhelm Lübke. Between 1874 and 1881 he was a participant in Olympia excavations (1875-81) conducted by Ernst Curtius. Because of his architectural training, he was responsible for the design of the original 1883 museum at Olympia. From 1877 onward, he returned to the practice of architecture, as section director responsible for church construction in Prussia. Adler was one of the first to understand the importance of Heinrich Schliemann‘s excavations. He wrote an admiring introduction to Schliemann’s 1886 book, Tiryns. Adler’s art-historical writings included Das Pantheon in Rom (1871) and Das Mausoleum zu Halikarnass (1900). His students included his future son-in-law, Wilhelm Dörpfeld.
Selected Bibliography
Mittelalterliche Backstein-Bauwerke des preussischen Staates. 2 vols. Berlin: Ernst & Korn, 1862-1898; and Curtius, Ernst. Olympia: Die Ergebnisse der von dem Deutschen Reich veranstalteten Ausgrabung. 5 vols. Berlin: A. Asher, 1890-97; Baugeschichtliche Forschungen in Deutschland. 2 vols. Berlin: Ernst & Korn, 1870-1879; Das Pantheon zu Rom. Berlin: Archäologischen Gesellschaft & W. Hertz , 1871.
Sources
Archäologenbildnisse: Porträts und Kurzbiographien von Klassichen Archäologen deutscher Sprache. Reinhard Lullies, ed. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1988: 53-54; Hammerschmidt, Valentin W. Anspruch und Ausdruck in der Architektur des späten Historismus in Deutschland: 1860-1914. Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang, 1985; Deutsches Künstler-Lexikon der Gegenwart in biographischen Skizzen auf Grund persönlicher einsendungen bearb. Geistige Deutschland am Ende des XIX. Jahrhunderts 1. Leipzig: C. G. Röder, 1898, p. 8; The Dictionary of Art 1: 159-60; Traill, David. “Johann Friedrich Adler.” Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology. Nancy Thomson de Grummond, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996, p. 7; Saur Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon 1: 388.