Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
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Replica Workshop
The Replica Workshop was founded in 1819 by King Friedrich Wilhelm III as the 'Royal Prussian Institute of Plaster Casting' and was incorporated into the association of Royal Prussian Museums in 1830, making it in fact the oldest institution at the National Museums in Berlin. In its early years its director, Christian Daniel Rauch, the most revered Neoclassical sculptor of Prussia, oversaw the formation of a collection of plaster casts, intended for use by the Berlin museums. It was through his personal contacts with individuals in Italy that important moulds were able to be made in situ. The workshop was commissioned to create study collections for the Academy of Arts (Akademie der Künste) and Berlin University, to name but a few. Its clients were not restricted to academic institutions, however, and art enthusiasts from the general public also had the opportunity to acquire faithful replicas from the collection of moulds. Among its early private clients, for instance, were Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the brothers Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt, all of whom were delighted with the quality of the objects fashioned for them here in Berlin. The Replica Workshop has been located at several different sites in its long history, first moving into the basement of the Altes Museum, then the Königliche Gießhaus (or 'Royal Casting House') in Münzstraße, before finally moving in 1891 to the newly built property in Sophie-Charlotten-Straße, in Charlottenburg. The building was purpose-built to house the workshop, and now holds the moulding workshop, painting studio and the storerooms for the historical moulds and models.
