(b Pless, Silesia [now Pszczyna, Poland], 2 July 1823; d Berlin, 13 Aug 1914). German architect and writer. After training at the Bauakademie (1845–8 and 1851–3) in Berlin, he became City Architect of Cologne in 1854, a post he retained until 1872. Although his early designs continued Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s tradition of brick architecture inspired by the German Romanesque style, Raschdorff’s restoration of the 15th-century Gürzenich Festival Hall (1855–7) and the town hall (1860–70), in Cologne, together with his execution of Friedrich August Stüler’s Wallraf-Richartz Museum (1861; destr.) there, turned his interest more towards German Gothic and Renaissance sources. By the time he built the Municipal Theatre (1870–72; see COLOGNE, fig. 2) in Cologne, he was incorporating French Renaissance elements in the designs. In 1878 Raschdorff accepted a professorship at the Berlin Technische Hochschule. There he completed building work begun by Friedrich Hitzig and added a chemistry laboratory of his own design (1882–4). In 1884 he began St George’s English Church in Monbijou Park, Berlin; five years later he built the mausoleum of Frederick, Emperor of Germany, next to the Friedenskirche in Potsdam.

• Raschdorff, Julius (Carl)
  • assistants
    • Wiethase, Heinrich Johann
  • groups and movements
    • Renaissance Revival, §1: Architecture
  • patrons and collectors
    • Hohenzollern: (16) William II, King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany
  • pupils
    • Schwechten, Franz
  • works
    • Berlin, §I, 3: History and urban development, c 1806–c 1871
    • Cologne, §I, 3: History and urban development, 1794 and after
    • Germany, §II, 6(iv): Renaissance Revival architecture and late 19th-century developments
    • Gründerzeit
    • Potsdam, §2: Schloss Sanssouci