Schrumpf, Friedrich Ludwig

Architect, Painter

Born: 15.08.1765 in Sulzbach (Lower Alsace)

died: 02.04.1844 in Biebrich

Schrumpf, a master builder of classicism in Nassau alongside Georg Carl Florian Goetz and Christian Zais, studied Greco-Roman antiquity, ancient languages, mathematics and philosophical sciences in Strasbourg and learned painting, sculpture and architecture in Zweibrücken, Mannheim and Düsseldorf. He perfected his education on study trips to Germany, Italy and France.

After initially working as an art and court painter for the Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg from 1784-91, Schrumpf taught painting and drawing as well as civil and military architecture at the High School in Herborn from September 1791. From October 1805 he also gave public lectures on architecture and applied mathematics, now with the rank of academic building director, and from 1806 he was also responsible for Oranienstein Castle near Diez an der Lahn as court building director. During the time of the Grand Duchy of Berg (1806-13), he was architect of the Sieg-Departement, one of the four departments of the Grand Duchy, and subsequently, from August 1814, director of regional building in Nassau-Oranien, the former Nassau principalities of Dillenburg, Diez and Hadamar. Shortly before this, he had given up his teaching position at the high school in Herborn.

Schrumpf had been living in Weilburg since 1816, but in June 1817 he was appointed court building director and was now responsible for the building maintenance of the palaces and farm buildings of the sovereign Wilhelm Duke of Nassau. He moved to Biebrich in the same year, where he was responsible for the classicist redesign of central rooms in Biebrich Palace and for its elaborate refurnishing (1827-31) until July 1834, the year he retired. He also designed the flight of steps on the Rhine side of the rotunda (1827) and was also entrusted with the creation of Biebrich Palace Park according to the plans of garden architect Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell (1819-21).

During the same period, the Platte hunting lodge was built according to his plans, for which he was awarded the title of "Baurat" in 1827, and the first Catholic church on Luisenplatz, the predecessor of St. Boniface's Church, which collapsed shortly before completion in 1831. Schrumpf was sentenced to pay around 30,000 fl. in damages to the parish for neglecting building supervision, which led to his impoverishment in the last decade of his life.