Konrad Schick: the architect who changed Jerusalem

Among the names inscribed in the history of Jerusalem in modern times, the name of Konrad Schick is undoubtedly one of the most famous. A deeply religious Christian, self-taught, who mastered many professions, Schick left behind many beautiful buildings and stunning archaeological finds - and Jerusalem, largely thanks to him, confidently stepped beyond the walls of the Old City and gradually began to acquire its present appearance.

Konrad Schick, who was born into a German peasant family, most likely would have followed in the footsteps of his parents and worked in the field. But the child's inborn soreness led the father to the conclusion that there would be little sense from his son in the household - so the boy was sent to study at a spiritual educational institution in Korntal. Not that Konrad's father was very pious - it was just that along with Latin and Holy Scripture they taught carpentry and blacksmithing, as well as mechanics, which in the eyes of any peasant of those times (especially German) was of high value. It must be said that the listed crafts, as well as a number of others, Schick, while studying Christian sciences, also mastered excellently, which later helped him a lot in life.
In 1846, Konrad Schick from Württemberg came to Jerusalem as part of a Protestant mission - and almost immediately becomes seriously ill. The staff of the mission, founded by Pastor Christian Friedrich Spitler, came out as a like-minded person. However, a lot of money was spent on the treatment, and Konrad was forced to look for work. That in itself in Jerusalem, divided into ethnic, religious, family communities, engaged in the same for generations, was not an easy task. Nevertheless, Schick found a clever way out: in the Arab quarter, he launched a successful sale of German cuckoo clocks, which he designed with his own hands. Konrad Schick distributed the debts, things were going uphill - but suddenly he announced his departure from the mission. The fact is that Schick decided to marry, but the norms of pietism, Protestant teaching, which Spitler's religious community adhered to, spoke of personal piety, moral purity, active love - but not about family life. And Konrad made a choice.

Schick's wife was a German woman, Carolina Amalia Schmidt, who died in childbirth shortly after the wedding. After a while, Konrad married her cousin, the missionary Frederick Pauline Doubler. Looking ahead, let's say that of the six children born to them, three died in infancy. Which, however, was not considered at that time something out of the ordinary.
As for further religious activities, Schick joined the 'Anglican Missionary Society for the Spread of Christianity among Jews', which was engaged not only in religious, but also educational and charitable activities, trying to help the people of Palestine as much as possible. The Bishop of Jerusalem, Samuel Gobat, invited Shick to work at the House of Industriousness, where they taught the crafts of local children. Soon Konrad Schick, who possessed wide knowledge in various professions, became the director there, remaining in this position for many years.
However, Shik's activity here was not limited to one pedagogical work. Bishop Gobat looked for opportunities for Christian settlements in Jerusalem to develop outside the walls of the Old City - and thanks to Konrad Schick, his intentions were finally realized. Schick did not have an architectural education - but he had an undoubted innate talent in this area. As a schoolboy, he, relying on the works of the ancient historian Josephus Flavius, made a model of the Second Temple. Knowing about the talent of Shik and his indifference to the Jerusalem antiquity, Gobat dedicated him to his plans and gave him one of the most important places in them.
Russian excavations '> Schick is building a hospital of the Anglican Missionary Society in Jerusalem. Then he takes part in the construction of several leper colony. There were simply an incredible number of patients with leprosy behind one of the city gates of Jerusalem at that time - and Schick became the author of the project of the most spacious shelter of them. with spacious chambers, surrounded by a garden, allowed lepers not to expect imminent death lying down, but to spend their days in creative work, caring for plants and animals.
Another Shik's project is a school-orphanage for Christian girls 'Talita kumi'. Built in 1868, the three-story building was decorated with quotations from the New Testament, and in its center was a balcony; a clock flaunted on the school's triangular pediment. Unfortunately, in 1948, during the War of Independence, the orphanage was hit by a bomb, and in the eighties the building was demolished altogether - to the great displeasure of the Jerusalemites. Only a part of its facade with a clock has remained, where today city residents like to make appointments to each other.
Gradually, Chic becomes one of the most eminent Jerusalem architects - if not the most eminent. It is to him that the Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt, the author of the painting 'The Light of the World', turns to him with a request to help develop a design for his Jerusalem mansion. Which Schick does by signing his signature round window over the main entrance.

The Ethiopian Christian community of Jerusalem, which received money from its emperor to build a monastery and temple south of the Old City, chose Shik as the author of the project. Konrad approaches the matter as always thoroughly and for a long time studies the architectural features of the religious buildings of Ethiopian Christians. The fruit of his thoughts and labors is the round Kidane Meheret church with a dome over the altar part, which caused real delight among the customers.
It must be said that not only Christians, but also Jews and Muslims resorted to the services of Shik - a designer, architect, specialist in the field of restoration and construction. Joseph Rivlin, founder of the Jerusalem Builders Society, who planned to build a new Jewish quarter outside the walls of the Old City, the fifth in a row - Mea Shearim - turned to him. Schick designed it based on the experience of setting up Jewish ghettos in Eastern Europe. The quarter was in the shape of a rectangle, along the perimeter of which the longest buildings were located. It was fenced in, and the gate for the night locked. The construction of Mea Shearim (in our time this quarter is inhabited by ultra-Orthodox Jews) took six years. It is interesting to note that in the process of its construction representatives of different religious communities living in Jerusalem interacted: the Protestant Konrad Schick became the architect, the Jews Rivlin and Zalman Baharan were financing the project, and the Arab Christian from Bethlehem was the contractor.

Inside the Old City, in the Jewish Quarter, Schick designed the Batey Maskhe residential area, as well as the highway to Hebron, the New Gate of Jerusalem and the German Colony. He also advocated the construction of a railway from the port of Jaffa to Jerusalem; restored the Jaffa Gate and overhauled the mosques on the Temple Mount. Having visited its underground tunnels and rooms, he drew up detailed drawings, on the basis of which models were later created. Their value can be judged by one single fact: the sale of models of mosques allowed Shik to build a house for his family on the street of the Prophets, which is still considered one of the most beautiful buildings in Jerusalem today. In it in 1901, an outstanding builder, architect and archaeologist and departed to another world. His body was taken to the Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion and interred. The remaining testimonies say that everyone mourned about the death of Konrad Schick: Christians, Muslims, and followers of Judaism.

We have written more than once about Konrad Schick's participation in architectural research on the territory of the Holy City. Therefore, we will only remind here that he found the biblical Emmaus, Bithphagia, Bethany, Velil and Galgala; he reopened the Siloam Tunnel in the City of David, participated in the Russian excavations and established the location of the Doomsday Threshold, and undertook many successful expeditions throughout Palestine. In principle, discoveries in the field of biblical archeology alone would be enough to forever inscribe your name in the history of the Holy City. But Konrad Schick did much more. He made the overpopulated city, now and then suffering from epidemics, huddled within the walls of the 16th century, to believe in the possibility of growing, while maintaining its color, its originality and diversity. This process is not a leap forward, but a confident forward movement, which continues today.

Based on research by Alexei Surin
'The chic of all Jerusalem'