After the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome and the Académies Royales in Paris, the Prussian Academy of Art was the oldest institution of its kind in Europe, with a similar mission to other royal academies of that time, such as the Real Academia Española in Madrid, the Royal Society in London, or the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. The academy had a decisive influence on art and its development in the German-speaking world throughout its existence. For an extended period of time it was also the German artists' society and training organisation, whilst the Academy's Senate became Prussia's arts council as early as 1699. It dropped 'Prussian' from its name in 1945 and was finally disbanded in 1955 after the 1954 foundation of two separate academies of art for East Berlin and West Berlin in 1954. Those two separate academies merged in 1993 to form Berlin's present-day Academy of Arts.
People
Most artists were associated with the academy as members. Membership was an honorary distinction extended to prominent domestic Prussian artists and selected foreign figures as well. A 'deliberative' body of senators was chosen from the membership – some elected, and some automatically included due to other rank. The academy was not a school, although it had associations with educational institutions, notably the state school that evolved into the present-day Berlin University of the Arts.
The academy was founded to include painters, sculptors, and architects as members, reflecting the classical unity of the arts ideal. The scope was expanded in 1704 to include "Mechanical Sciences". The academy's first director was Swiss painter Joseph Werner. Name changes:
1696–1704 Kurfürstliche Academie der Mahler-, Bildhauer- und Architectur-Kunst
1704–1790 Königlich-Preussische Akademie der Künste und mechanischen Wissenschaften
Longtime director and sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow served from 1815 to 1850. In 1833 the academy added a fine arts division, and a music division in 1835. Emil Fuchs studied at the Academy under Fritz Schaper and Anton von Werner, shortly before 1891. Otto Geyer studied there from 1859–1864. Sculptor Wilhelm Neumann-Torborg studied at the academy from 1878 until 1885, under Otto Knille and Fritz Schaper. In 1885, he won the Academy's Rome Scholarship for his thesis, "The Judgment of Paris". Anna Gerresheim studied there from 1876 for four years in the "ladies class" under Karl Gussow. Oskar Frenzel studied there between 1884 and 1889 under Paul Friedrich Meyerheim and Eugen Bracht. He was from 1904 until his death a member of the Academy. Painter Friedrich Wachenhusen studied there in 1889 under Eugen Bracht. Name changes:
1790–1809 Königliche Akademie der bildenden Künste und mechanischen Wissenschaften zu Berlin
1809–1875 Königlich Preussische Akademie der Künste
1875–1882 Königlich Preussische Akademie der Künste zu Berlin
1882–1918 Königliche Akademie der Künste zu Berlin
20th century
In 1926 the academy added a Dichtkunst division, a Dichtung division in 1932, and the German Academy of Poetry from the beginning of June 1933. From 1930 until his parting into exile in 1933, novelist Heinrich Mann was its president. Painter and sculptor Paul Wallat studied there from 1902–1909 under and Carl Saltzmann. On December 29, 1906 he received the award of the Ginsberg Foundation of the Berlin Academy. In 1920, Käthe Kollwitz became the first woman elected to the Prussian Academy, but with the coming to power of Adolf Hitler in 1933 she was expelled because of her beliefs and her art. Name changes:
1882–1918 Königliche Akademie der Künste zu Berlin
1918–1926 Akademie der Künste zu Berlin
1926–1931 Preußische Akademie der Künste zu Berlin
