page_title: Rudolf Wiegmann
section_title: His career in Düsseldorf
hierarchical_section_title: Rudolf Wiegmann / Biography / His career in Düsseldorf
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Flur im Wohnhaus von Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow in Düsseldorf am Flinger Steinweg (heute Schadowstraße. Aquarell von Rudolf Wiegmann 1836. Im Vordergrund Rudolf Wiegmann, der Architekt des 1838 fertiggestellten Hauses, im Hintergrund Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow mit einem Besucher.
context_page_description: Heinrich Ernst Gottfried Rudolf Wiegmann was a German painter, archaeologist, art historian, graphic artist and architect. He worked in the Classical style and, as a painter, is best known for his vedute. His wife, Marie Wiegmann, whom he married in 1841, was also a painter of some note.
context_section_description: He was, however, unsatisfied with his career in Hanover and moved to Düsseldorf in 1836. There he published a book based on his work in Pompeii: The Painting of the Ancients in Application and Technique. This resulted in a dispute with the architect, Leo von Klenze, who questioned Wiegmann's conclusions. Wiegmann replied in 1839 with Sir Leo von Klenze and Our Art.
  After 1836, he taught at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He was named a Professor of Architecture and Perspective in 1839; a position he held until his death. From 1846, he was also head of the Academic Secretariat, under Director Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, and was responsible for correspondence, matriculations and programs. During these years, he became an advocate of Rundbogenstil, a type of Romanesque Revival architecture and designed a home for Schadow on what is now Schadowstraße.
  In 1839, he designed a new system for roof joints that he described in a book called The Construction of Chain Bridges According to the Triangle System and Their Application to Roof Joints. However, a virtually identical system was invented at about the same time by the French engineer Camille Polonceau, who used it to build stations for the  Paris-Versailles railway, so it has come to be known as a "Polonceau Roof".
  He was a member of the "Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen", serving on its administrative council. After 1844, he edited its official publication, the Correspondenzblatt. In 1857, he was named a corresponding member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. During his later years, he suffered from a chest ailment (possibly tuberculosis) and resigned his positions at the Kunstverein shortly before his death.
  His son, Arnold, was killed at the Battle of Spicheren in 1870. Two years later, his personal papers were destroyed in a fire at the Kunstverein.
caption: Corridor in the Schadowhaus
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