Biedermeier Architecture

Biedermeier describes the art and culture of the German Confederation between 1815 and 1848, the period between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Revolutions of 1848, during which the middle classes grew in number and artists and designers increasingly produced work suited to their tastes, emphasizing affection, sensibility, moderation and modesty over aristocratic grandeur. In architecture the style favored functionality and elegance shaped by nineteenth-century urbanization, producing buildings practical for middle-class living, as seen in Vienna's Geymuellerschloessel of 1808. The same sensibility shaped Biedermeier furniture, which prized quality craftsmanship and comfort using locally available woods such as cherry and oak rather than costly imported materials, and is often described as the first style to emerge from the growing middle class, predating and influencing later Victorian taste chiefly within the German-speaking lands.