Editing Gottfried Semper (section)

{{Short description|German architect and theorist (1803–1879)}}
{{Infobox architect
|name= Gottfried Semper
|image= ETH-BIB-Semper, Gottfried (1803-1879)-Portrait-Portr 10869.tif (cropped).jpg
|caption= Semper in 1870
|nationality= German
|birth_date= {{birth date|1803|11|29|df=y}}
|birth_place= [[Hamburg]]
|death_date= {{death date and age|1879|5|15|1803|11|29|df=y}}
|death_place= [[Rome]], [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]]
|practice=
|significant_buildings= [[Semper Opera House]]
|significant_projects=
|significant_design=
|awards=
}}
[[File:Monument to Gottfried Semper on Brühl's Terrace next to Albertinum.jpg|thumb|Monument to Gottfried Semper on [[Brühl's Terrace]] next to [[Albertinum]]]]

'''Gottfried Semper''' ({{IPA|de|ˈɡɔtfʁiːt ˈzɛmpɐ|lang}}; 29 November 1803 – 15 May 1879) was a German architect, [[art critic]], and professor of [[architecture]] who designed and built the [[Semperoper|Semper Oper]]a House in [[Dresden]] between 1838 and 1841. In 1849 he took part in the [[May Uprising in Dresden]] and was put on the government's wanted list. He fled first to [[Zürich]] and later to London. He returned to Germany after the 1862 amnesty granted to the revolutionaries.

Semper wrote extensively on the origins of architecture, especially in his book ''[[The Four Elements of Architecture]]'' (1851), and was one of the major figures in the controversy surrounding the [[Polychrome|polychrome architectural style]] of [[ancient Greece]]. He designed works at all scales—from major urban interventions such as the redesign of the [[Ringstraße]] in [[Vienna]], to a baton for [[Richard Wagner]].<ref>[[Dorothea Schröder]]: "Nibelungenring und mystischer Knoten. Gottfried Sempers Entwurf zu einem Taktstock für Richard Wagner" Jahrbuch des Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg,1993, {{p.|120}}</ref> His unrealised design for an opera house in [[Munich]] was, without permission, adapted by Wagner for the [[Bayreuth Festspielhaus]].