Herman Major Schirmer

Herman Major Schirmer ( born June 20, 1845 in Christiania, † April 11, 1913 in Christiania ) was a Norwegian architect, architectural historian and antiquarian Reichs- German descent.

Career

After schooling, he began his professional preparation for the subsequent training as an architect. His father Heinrich Ernst Schirmer took him to study trips to his home country to Germany and made it to the German - Norwegian painter and architect Franz Wilhelm Schiertz of mountains known by which he gained his first professional experience. He then began studying at the Dresden Art Academy ( 1866-68 ). According to another study trips to Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Sweden, he returned in 1869 to Christiania (Oslo ) back. There he worked as an independent architect and was involved in various public buildings in Norway, such as Royal Hotell in Oslo, villas by the Frognersaeteren, a church in Hamar and Bergen Bank. From 1873 to 1884 he taught architecture and 1884-1911 design and ornamentation at the State School of Art and Design ( Statens Håndverks -og Kunstindustriskole ), now part of the Art Academy of Oslo. He was instrumental in the development of its Academy and influenced an entire generation of Norwegian architects of his time. With students and young architects he made several scientific study trips (1895-1912) by Norway to document and explore traditional Norwegian folk designs. Schirmer published to several journals and treatises, also continue to medieval architecture in Norway, the building culture in the Middle Ages, Studies on the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, as well as to the contemporary building. Through the support of the Norwegian Association of Young Architects ( Yngre arkitektforening ) he was elected in 1891 to the Board of Fortidsminneforeningen (Association for the preservation of cultural and historical monuments). He was also, in the then initially Swedish Riksantikvarieämbetet ( Reich antiquarian Conservation Office ) working for Norway. From 1912 until his death in 1913, he was the first Norwegian kingdom antiquarian, Norwegian: Riksantikvar (Head of the State Agency of monument protection and care ).

Family

Herman Major Schirmer is the son of the architect Heinrich Ernst Schirmer and his wife Ottilie Sophie Schirmer, born Major (1821-1861) and the brother of the Norwegian architect Adolf Schirmer. He was married to Annette Magdalene Riis Wiese ( born September 18, 1874 † July 11, 1927 ).