BÜRING, Johann Gottfried

(b. 1723 Hamburg, d. ~1788 ?)

German architect. He was responsible in Potsdam for the Neues Palais (New Palace, 1763-68), with a main elevation based on Vanbrugh’s Castle Howard, Yorkshire; the Chinese Tea House (1755-64); and No. 5, Am Neuen Markt (1753-55), based on Palladio’s Palazzo Thiene, Vicenza. He also worked with Johann Boumann (c. 1706-1776) on the building of St Hedwig’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, Berlin (1772-73), and designed the exquisite picture-gallery at Sanssouci, Potsdam (1755-63), one of the first in the history of museums erected solely to exhibit paintings. He also designed the Nauener Tor in Berlin.

Chinese Tea House

The Chinese Tea House is a garden pavilion in Sanssouci Park in Potsdam. Frederick the Great had it built, about seven hundred metres southwest of the Sanssouci Summer Palace, to adorn his flower and vegetable garden. The garden architect was Johann Gottfried B�ring, who between 1755 and 1764 designed the pavilion in the then-popular style of Chinoiserie, a mixture of ornamental Rococo elements and parts of Chinese architecture.

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General view

Frederick II of Prussia virtually prescribed his architects a design manual based on buildings and designs by Andrea Palladio, Giulio Romano Sir William Chambers, and others. He handed the Nauen Gate commission to Johann Gottfried B�ring along with a design for a medieval city gate with two round towers. By selecting from various styles, Potsdam as a civic entity for all was to be the model city of benevolent despotism.

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