EXPO2000 ::The Philadelphia World Exposition 1876::

Born on 30 April 1846 as a son of the painter Joseph Anton Schwarzmann, who had created several frescoes for King Ludwig I. in Munich, Hermann Josef Schwarzmann enrolled in the Royal Bavarian Military Academy at the age of 14. There, he was given a rudimentary education in engineering, which he complemented with a short university education in architecture after the Bavarian defeat by Prussia in 1866. As early as 1868, he emigrated to the United States. He settled down in Philadelphia and got a job as an assistant in the design of Faimount Park, the largest urban recreational and entertainment park in the US. He steadily worked towards the position of chief gardener. Up to the beginning of planning for the world exhibition, Schwarzmann had designed a large part of the park's landscape, but only two minor buildings.

In 1873, Schwarzmann was sent to Vienna by the Centennial Commission in order to study the world exhibition there and investigate the zoos. As a result of these investigations, and based on his experience in designing Fairmount Park, he submitted the plan for the layout of the exhibition site in 1874. In the meantime, he had advanced to the position of planner-in-chief for the exhibition commission. After this first design had been accepted, he got intensively involved in the design for Memorial Hall and the Horticultural Hall, which he submitted without competition for these buildings. Particularly his cost-efficient calculations convinced the Centennial Board of Finance.

After the world exhibition, Hermann Schwarzmann opened his own architectural firm in Philadelphia. But in spite of the precious contacts he had made because of his success at the exhibition, his firm did not do particularly well. In 1878 he moved to New York, where he built several restaurants, festivity halls and private residences. In the mid-1880s, he fell seriously ill and went blind, forcing him to withdraw from actively working as an architect. Hermann Josef Schwarzmann died on 2 October 1891 in New York.

Year: 1876	City: Philadelphia	Country: USA
Duration: 10th May - 10th November 1876