MÜLLER, Johann Georg - b. 1822 Mossnang, d. 1849 Wien

Swiss architect and writer. He trained under Felix Wilhelm Kubly (1802-1872) in St Gall (1837) and Georg Friedrich Ziebland in Munich (1838-41). In 1842-43 he travelled to Italy, staying mainly in Florence. In 1844-45 he opposed the rebuilding of the Laurenzenkirche at St Gall, which was instead restored (1849-55), basically in accordance with his ideas. Before going to Vienna in 1847, he designed several private houses and some railway stations, including that at Zurich.

Müller worked in Munich when he was invited to Vienna in 1848 to take over the planning of the suburban Altlerchenfeld church. He won the commission for the church and was also appointed to teach at the Hochschule. Unfortunately, he died tragically the next year.

Exterior view

In the late 1840s an important new suburban church, that of Altlerchenfeld, waS being started in Vienna in an Italian Renaissance style by the court architect Paul Eduard Sprenger (1798-1854). The younger architects of Vienna rebelled against the dictatorship of both the style and the man. They invited from Munich a youthful Swiss architect, Johann Georg M�ller, whose unusual talent was already known from his design for the completion of Florence cathedral, and other works in the new medievalizing manner.

M�ller won the new competition and was commissioned to continue the construction. He proceeded to integrate Sprenger’s foundations into his plan, building a basilica with a nave and two aisles of undressed brick with a double tower on the western fa�ade, a short transept and an octagonal dome over the crossing. Apart from the altered d�cor, the basically Neoclassical building masses were retained.