Between devotion and supervision: Sacred architecture in the Prussian prison system - a type of reform (1838-1924)
Analysis of exemplary selected buildings
Doctoral candidate: Sarah A. Stein, Dipl. Ing. (FH)
Supervisor: Prof. Eva von Engelberg-Dočkal
With the centralization of the administrative apparatus after the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Prussia relied nationwide on the construction of new prisons according to the panoptic system, which was based primarily on English models. The need to meet the increased demand for prison places and changing requirements for prisons resulted from the changes in the prison system over the course of the 18th century, in which imprisonment became established as a punishment and prison conditions subsequently came into focus.
Chapels were always integrated into these new prison buildings and formed a prominent part of the complex. Their size - often designed for several hundred prisoners - and the elaborate structural solutions for prison-specific (security) requirements show the important role they played in everyday prison life; in addition, one and often two prison priests were regularly employed and accommodated.
The panoptic prisons of the 19th century are the subject of numerous studies in both German-speaking and Anglo-Saxon countries and have been correspondingly well researched. However, the sacred spaces of these prisons have been largely ignored. Sarah Stein's dissertation project focuses on this desideratum of research and deals with the prison chapel as a special type within the sacred architecture of this period.