HÜBSCH, HEINRICH. - German architect, born at Weinhaim, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, on 9 Feb. 1795, died at Karlsruhe on 3 Apr. 1863.
After philosophical studies he travelled in Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Later he studied architecture in Italy; in 1827 he was appointed architect; he became professor at the Polytechnic Institute and then director in 1842. As an architect, Hübsch, in the buildings he constructed, adopted a system in which the motif of the full centre predominates, which, by the modern stamp given it by the author, is in evident contrast with the classical systems followed until then. His works include the Ministry of Finance building, the Museum of Fine Arts, the court theatre at Karlsruhe; the theatre and the new market at Baden; the buildings of the Customs and the free port at Mannheim. He built Catholic and Lutheran churches in many German cities; he restored the façade of the cathedral of Spires, the most famous and largest of the Romanesque churches of Germany, although the excessively radical restorations contributed to the loss of the primitive character of the building; he also restored the parochial house at Ludwigshafen.
His principal work relating to early Christianity is *Die altchristlichen Kirchen nach den Baudenkmälern und älteren Beschreibungen*, Karlsruhe 1862.
CARLO CARETTI