Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Erdmannsdorff (18 May 1736 – 9 March 1800) was a German architect and architectural theoretician, and one of the most significant representatives of early German Neoclassicism. His work included Wörlitz House in Wörlitzer Park near Dessau, one of the earliest classical houses on the European continent. His most well-known student was Friedrich Gilly, the teacher of Karl Friedrich Schinkel.
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Erdmannsdorff was born in Dresden to the Saxon courtier, Baron Ernst Ferdinand von Erdmannsdorff, and his wife, Henriette Margarethe von Heßler.
After his education at the Cavalier's Academy in Dresden from 1750–1754, Erdmannsdorff attended the University of Halle-Wittenberg from 1754–1758, where he encountered Prince Franz von Anhalt-Dessau, whose service he entered in 1758. His later fame is due his works for this prince in Dessau and Wörlitz. In accordance with the educational ideals of the Enlightenment, Prince Franz had the aim of reorganising his lands into a cohesive 'garden realm' (Gartenreich). In addition to the beautification of the landscape, cottages of various architectural styles, antique temples, bridges and memorials were to be built and to be accessible to everyone. He employed his friend and architect Erdmannsdorff to design the architectural arrangement of the grounds.
At the age of twenty three Erdmannsdorff become a Freemason and was initiated at the illustrious Minerva Zu Den Drei Palmen (Minerva to the three palm trees) lodge on 23 August 1759.
Between 1761 and 1775 on his grand tour to Italy, Holland, England, France and Switzerland, Erdmannsdorff gathered ideas for the architectural arrangement of the Wörlitz grounds. Accompanying the Prince, he got to know the style of the Scottish architects Robert and James Adam (the Adams Style). At the same time he was impressed by the architect William Chambers. In Rome Erdmannsdorff made the acquaintance of the archaeologist Johann Joachim Winckelmann and the painter Charles Louis Clérisseau, and contacted the master builder Giovanni Battista Piranesi and painter Jakob Philipp Hackert.
The contemporary art and culture of England made a particular impression on Erdmannsdorff as well as Prince Franz. The Palladian architecture of England, inspired by the Palladian Villas of the 16th century, can be seen replicated in Erdmannsdorff's later creations and was the strongest influence on his work next to the architecture and interior design of ancient Rome. In this artistic context he built, amongst others, the Country House at Wörlitz.
Although Erdmannsdorff favoured this particular architectural style, he also created buildings in the Neo-gothic style preferred by Prince Franz. Among others, he converted the influences he had received on his trip to England into the building of the Gothic House in the Wörlitz Grounds.
During his time in Anhalt-Dessau, Erdmannsdorff married Wilhelmine von Ahlimb in 1781, with whom he had two daughters.
In 1786 King Frederick William II of Prussia called on his services to redecorate the bedroom and study of his predecessor, Frederick the Great, in Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, as well a number of rooms in the Berliner Stadtschloss (Berlin City Palace). Consequently the first consistently classical interior of the Potsdam and Berlin palaces was built to Erdmannsdorff's specifications. During his stay in Berlin and Potsdam which lasted until 1789, he became an honorary member of the 'Royal Academy of Arts and Mechanical Sciences' in Berlin. Apart from this work he was above all active as a consultant in the areas of art, culture and education in Brandenburg.
Between 1789 and 1790, Erdmannsdorff stayed again in Italy. In Rome he made the acquaintance of the painters Angelika Kauffmann and Jakob Phillipp Hackert, as well as the sculptors Alexander Trippel, Antonio Canova and Bartolomeo Cavaceppi. After a trip to Weimar in 1791 with Prince Franz, he visited the courts of Gotha, Kassel and Karlsruhe. In 1796 he took over the artistic direction of the Chalkographische Gesellschaft in Dessau, founded in 1795, whose goal was to popularise artistic works through etchings. At this time he also worked as a lecturer at the Berlin School of Architecture, where he taught Friedrich Gilly among others.
Erdmannsdorff died in Dessau at the age of 64. His grave can be found at the New Graveyard (today known as Historical Cemetery I) in Dessau.
as well as a number of other garden follies.
Regarding personal names: Freiherr was a title, translated as Baron, not a first or middle name. The female forms are Freifrau and Freiin. In Germany, however, since 1919 Freiherr is no title any more but part of the surname, thus following the given name(s) and not to be translated.