The pointers towards Modernism were set around 1800 in Germany. This applies not just to science and social forms, but also not least to architecture. It is true that relatively little was built at this time, but the designs of the period are all the more rich and exciting and so is the architectural debate that accompanied them, which was held both in the specialist press (the first specialized magazines came out at that time) and also in general magazines. Klaus Jan Philipp follows this discourse using rich source material and evaluating publications and essays that have so far been almost completely neglected by research. Not so much the representatives of their specialism, all very well known today, like Friedrich Gilly, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Leo von Klenze and Friedrich Weinbrenner, dominated the discussion in those years, but rather colleagues of theirs who have long been forgotten, and also a substantial number of laymen. Thus this book relativizes the commonly held view of Classicism in Germany, which concentrates on the great architectural personalities. Philipp not only traces how independent architectural criticism established itself in Germany, but also shows that discussion about the "battle of styles" in the 19th century has to be dated a few decades earlier, which sheds completely new light on the prehistory of Modernism. As well as this, all the reviews of publication in those years are collected in the bibliography. This opens up a real treasure-house for further research into German Classicism.
