Sketchbook by an Architect

The sketchbook by August Moosbrugger (1802–1858) contains architectonic studies and drawings made as a pupil at Johann Jakob Friedrich Weinbrenner’s (1766–1826) building school, which is a predecessor to the KIT Department of Architecture. Weinbrenner (1766–1826) opened this school at Ettlinger Tor in 1800, and it quickly became the leading training center for architects and aspiring building officials in southwest Germany. As Baden’s director of construction, Weinbrenner oversaw the entire building sector of the Grand Duchy. The buildings he designed and constructed significantly shaped the cityscapes of Karlsruhe and Baden-Baden. His publications and teaching of around 100 pupils from his building school ensured widespread influence of the so-called Weinbrenner style. After Weinbrenner’s death, this building school continued as a higher educational institution for architects. In 1832, it was integrated into the restructured Polytechnical College to form a technical school for civil architecture. A continuous line of development leads from there to the current Faculty of Architecture at KIT. August Moosbrugger’s subsequent career was equally successful. He worked as a professor of geometry and drawing at the Lyceum in Rastatt from 1826 prior to his appointment as building inspector in Wertheim, Hesse, in 1836. as, kn