David Gilly was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 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...

 and architecture-tutor in Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

, the father of the architect Friedrich Gilly

Friedrich Gilly

Friedrich David Gilly was a German architect and the son of the architect David Gilly.Born in Altdamm , Pomerania , Gilly was known as a prodigy and the teacher of the young Karl Friedrich Schinkel. In 1788 he enrolled at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Berlin...

.

Life

Born in Schwedt

Schwedt

Schwedt is a city in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the largest city of the district Uckermark near the Oder river on the border with Poland.-Overview:...

, Gilly was the son of the Huguenot

Huguenot

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

 immigrant Jacques Gilly and his wife Marie Villemain. His brother was the physician Charles Gilly. Already at 15 years of age, Gilly worked with on the gardens on the Noteć

Notec

Noteć is a river in central Poland with a length of 388 km and a basin area of 17,330 km². It is a tributary of the Warta river and lies completely within Poland....

. As a specialist in building water-features, he was appointed master builder in 1770 (at 22 years of age), and was active in the years 1772 to 1782 in Stargard

Stargard Szczecinski

Stargard Szczeciński is a city in northwestern Poland, with a population of 71,017 . Situated on the Ina River it is the capital of Stargard County and since 1999 has been in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship; prior to that it was in the Szczecin Voivodeship...

, Hinterpommern. Gilly was the first examinee of the newly established Ober-Examinationskommission.

Around 1777, Gilly married Friederike, a daughter of the regimental stable-master Friedrich Ziegenspeck. With her he had two children, Friedrich and Minna (who later married the politician Friedrich Gentz).

In Stargard, Gilly was in 1779 promoted to building director of Pomerania, before being transferred in 1782 to Stettin. As a building director, he designed (among other things) responsibly for the harbour company of Swinemünde and Kolberg. Because Gilly had already made himself widely known among the new generation of newly-qualified architects, he established the "Cameralbau" in Stettin. For King Frederick the Great, he acted as a source of expertise for comprehensive land improvement schemes.

In 1788 Gilly was recalled to Berlin, into the Oberbaudepartement. There he was promoted that very year to be architectural advisor for the provinces of Pomerania, East Prussia

East Prussia

East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

 and West Prussia

West Prussia

West Prussia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773–1824 and 1878–1919/20 which was created out of the earlier Polish province of Royal Prussia...

, responsible for Kurmark

Kurmark

Kurmark is a German term meaning "Electoral March", referring to territory of the former Electorate of Brandenburg. The Kurmark included the Altmark, the Mittelmark, the Uckermark, the Prignitz, and the lordships of Beeskow and Storkow...

and Altmark

Altmark

The Altmark is a historic region in Germany, comprising the northern third of Saxony-Anhalt. As the initial territory of the Brandenburg margraves, it is sometimes referred to as the "Cradle of Prussia", as by Otto von Bismarck, a native from Schönhausen near Stendal.- Geography :The Altmark is...

. His appointment as vice director of the construction and inspection department lasted four years. As such, Gilly was from 1792 to 1801 in charge of the building of the Bromberger Canal

Bydgoszcz Canal

Bydgoszcz Canal - a canal, 24.7 km long, between the cities of Bydgoszcz and Nakło in Poland, connecting Vistula river with Oder river, through Brda and Noteć rivers . The level difference along the canal is regulated with usage of 6 locks...

 and the reconstruction and extension of the harbour concern of Danzig and Elbing

Elbing

Elbing is the German name of Elbląg, a city in northern Poland which until 1945 was a German city in the province of East Prussia.Elbing may also refer to:- Ships :* SMS Elbing, light cruiser of the Imperial Germany Navy...

.

Gilly later founded a private architectural school in Berlin in 1793 and five years later was one of the co-founders of the Berliner Bauakademie

Bauakademie

The Bauakademie in Berlin, Germany, built between 1832 and 1836, is considered one of the forerunners of modern architecture due to its theretofore uncommon use of red brick and the relatively streamlined facade of the building.Designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the Bauakademie was built near...

 (today the technical university). In these years, Gilly created some of his most beautiful works: in 1796 the country seat at Paretz in Potsdam

Potsdam

Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....

 for King Frederick William III

Frederick William III of Prussia

Frederick William III was king of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel .-Early life:...

, and two years later the Schloss Freienwalde for Queen Louise

Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was Queen consort of Prussia as the wife of King Frederick William III...

.

Gilly conceived and erected a city palace in Braunschweigand for the publisher Eduard Vieweg in 1801 and almost at the same time he rebuilt Schloss Steinhöfel

Steinhöfel

Steinhöfel is a municipality in the Oder-Spree district, in Brandenburg, Germany....

 for the Hofmarschall

Hofmarschall

The Hofmarschall was the administrative official in charge of a princely German court, supervising all its economic affairs....

 Valentin von Massow.

When on 3 August 1800 his son Friedrich died, he lost his creative impulse, even finding no pleasure in a short study trip to Paris in 1803/04. His wife Friederike died in 1804 and after the obligatory year of mourning, Gilly married her sister, Juliane Ziegenspeck.

At the age of 60, on 5 May 1808, Gilly died in Berlin. His grave in Berlin in the Protestant Friedhof II der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde (Cemetery No. II of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church

Jerusalem's Church

Jerusalem's Church is one of the churches of the Evangelical Congregation in the Friedrichstadt , a member of the Protestant umbrella organisation Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. The present church building is located in Berlin, borough Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, in...

 and New Church

Deutscher Dom

Deutscher Dom is the colloquial naming for the New Church located in Berlin on the Gendarmenmarkt across from Französischer Dom . Its parish comprised the northern part of the then new quarter of Friedrichstadt, which until then belonged to the parish of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church...

) was rediscovered and renovated in 1938.

Writings

• Beschreibung der Feuer abhaltenden Lehmschindeldächer : nebst gesammelten Nachrichten und Erfahrungen über die Bauart mit getrockneten Lehmziegeln. (1794)
• Grundriß zu den Vorlesungen über das Praktische bey verschiedenen Gegenständen der Wasserbaukunst. (1795)
• Vergleichung der verschiedenen Bauarten welche bey Gründung der im Meere erbauten Werke, vorzüglich aber bey Aufführung der Hafen-Wände oder der sogenannten Molen an den See-Häfen, gebräuchlich sind. (1796)
• Sammlung nützlicher Aufsätze und Nachrichten. (1797)
• Ueber Erfindung, Construction und Vortheile der Bohlen-Dächer. (1797)
• Handbuch der Landbaukunst. (1798, 2. Aufl. 1800, 3. Aufl. 1805, 4. Aufl. 1818, 5. Aufl. 1822)
• Kurze Anleitung auf welche Art Blitzableiter an den Gebäuden anzubringen sind. (1798, 2. Aufl. 1802)
• Abriss der Cameral-Bauwissenschaft. (1799)
• Praktische Anleitung zur Anwendung des Nivellirens oder Wasserwägens in den bey der Landeskultur vorkommenden gewöhnlichsten Fällen. (1800, 2. Aufl. 1804, 3. Aufl. 1827)
• Praktische Anweisung zur Wasserbaukunst. (1802, 2. Aufl. 1809)
• Über die Gründung der Gebäude auf ausgemauerte Brunnen. (1804)
• Sammlung von Aufsätzen und Nachrichten die Baukunst betreffend (This collection counts as one of the first trade-journals written by a builder.)

Buildings

• Schloss Steinhöfel
• Gutshaus Kleinmachnow 1796-1803
• Schloss and Dorf Paretz 1797-1805
• Schloss Freienwalde
• Vieweghaus Braunschweig 1798-1804 (npw the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum)

External links

• David Gilly