HÜBSCH, HEINRICH. - German architect, b. at Weinheim, in the grand duchy of Baden, 9 Feb. 1795, d. at Karlsruhe, 3 Apr. 1863.
After philosophical studies he travelled in Italy, Greece, and Turkey. He subsequently studied architecture in Italy; he was then appointed architect in 1827; he became professor at that Polytechnic, then director in 1842. As an architect, H., in the buildings he constructed, adopted a system in which the round-arch motif predominates, which, owing to the modern interpretation given it by the author, stands in evident contrast to the classical systems followed until then. His works include the Ministry of Finance Palace, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the court theatre at Karlsruhe; the theatre and the new market at Baden; the Customs House and free-port buildings at Mannheim. He built Catholic and Lutheran churches in a great many German cities; he restored the façade of Speyer Cathedral, the most famous and largest of Germany’s Romanesque churches, although excessively radical restorations contributed to depriving the building of its original character; he also restored the parish house at Ludwigshafen.
His principal work concerning Christian antiquity is Die altchristlichen Kirchen nach den Baudenkmälern und älteren Beschreibungen, Karlsruhe, 1862. Carlo Carletti