Welsch, Johann Maximilian von (ennobled 1714)

Architect

baptized: 23.02.1671 in Kronach

died: 14.10.1745 in Mainz

After his youth in Bamberg and a period of military service in Saxony-Gotha, Welsch transferred to the Electorate of Mainz as an officer and civil engineer, as he was denied the military career he had hoped for in the district troops. Initially entrusted with military engineering tasks such as the expansion of the Philippsburg fortress, the Elector and Archbishop of Mainz, Lothar Franz von Schönborn, brought him to the residence city for the expansion of the Mainz fortress.

Welsch became one of the main representatives of Rhine-Franconian Baroque architecture. His works were created for the members of the House of Schönborn, who were scattered among the ecclesiastical princely seats of the empire, and for princes who were related to or friends with them. Welsch's plans are documented for Bamberg, Ellwangen, Erfurt, Fulda, Mainz, Mergentheim, Öttingen, Pommersfelden, Weisenau, Worms and Würzburg, among others. Today, the small amount of surviving and verifiable work stands in stark contrast to his fame and reputation.

In Biebrich in 1707-21, he had a decisive influence on the design of the palace, in particular the interior, the rotunda and the orangery (which no longer exists), including the French palace park. The central task was to connect the two separate east and west pavilions to form a unified palace complex. In order to realize an overall baroque concept, Welsch placed an attic-crowned rotunda in the middle, which connected the two pavilions through galleries. The building established Welsch's fame as a civil architect and helped the Principality of Nassau-Idstein to build a remarkably high-quality and original palace in the German Baroque style.

Welsch later also worked for the princes of Nassau-Idstein in Idstein, where he created a tomb and the palm-shaped gallery supports in the Union Church as well as the interior of the palace. He created a garden in Usingen for Nassau-Usingen.