Architect, city planner and construction engineer, civil servant and private entrepreneur, structural engineer and inventor: Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves (1788–1864) was all of these. He is regarded as one of the leading protagonists of classicism, along with Schinkel, von Klenze, and Moller. Influenced by study trips to France, Italy, and England and later by the form concepts of Berlin classicism, from 1814 he went on to have a strong influence on the urban development of Hannover into an imperial city, at the behest of the crown. Tradition and modernity characterize the era of his oeuvre.
This volume summarizes contributions to the two-day symposium “‘… von vorzüglicher Monumentalität’: Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves in Hannover”, realized by the VolkswagenStiftung, in cooperation with the Lavesstiftung. It also places the work of the architect into a wide social and historical context, up until the present day. Architectural training during the Biedermeier era, structural physics, building regulations, and architecture discourses after 1800 are also addressed, as is the modern-day perspective on Laves—not only against the background of the rebuilding of Herrenhausen Castle.

With contributions by Werner Oechslin, Dieter Bartetzko, Michael Mönninger, Adrian von Buttlar, Sven Kotulla, among others.