Lenné, Peter Joseph (1789–1866). German landscape-architect and urban designer, trained under his father, Peter Joseph Lenné (1756–1821), and J.- N.- L. Durand. He worked at Laxenburg, near Vienna (1814–15), before settling in Potsdam, where, in 1854, he became the General Director of Gardens. He laid out the gardens of the Pfaueninsel (1818) and Charlottenburg (1819), and after a visit to England in 1822 he introduced the English landscape garden to Prussia on a grand scale, influenced by the work of Kent and Sckell, notably at the Volksgarten, Magdeburg (1824). Lenné collaborated with Schinkel and the lat-ter's pupils, especially Persius, on numerous schemes, notably the gardens contiguous to Charlottenhof (from 1825—where there were allusions to Antiquity and to the Alhambra, Granada), and the grounds of Schloss Glienecke and Schloss Babelsberg (although both parks were strongly influenced from 1843 by the views of Pückler-Muskau, who had no high opinion of Lenné's work). He prepared (from 1833) an ambitious scheme for the landscaping and general improvement of the whole Potsdam-Sanssouci district adjoining the Havel Lake, transforming it into one of the most enchanting landscapes in all Europe, with reciprocal vistas, panoramic views, and intimate enclosures. He transformed the Tiergarten, Berlin, into an informal land-scape, enlarged in the 1840s to encompass the zoo: the entire ensemble became a public park. He also prepared plans for Berlin and its suburbs, including Moabit and Tempelhof, and in the 1850s advised on the planning of several cities, including Dresden, Leipzig, and Munich. Lenné's designs should be seen as complementary to the architecture of Schinkel (especially in the area round Charlot-tenhof, the Court Gardener's House, and the Roman Baths, Potsdam), and as playing no small part in Romantic Classicism. His work was very influential in C19 Germany, especially through his Lehrbuch der schönen Garten-kunst (Textbook of beautified landscape design, 1859), and his pupils, including Gustav Meyer (1816–77—who was in charge of the parks and gardens of Berlin from 1871).

Bibliography

Bergdoll (1994);
Giersberg & and Schendel (1982);
Günther (1985);
G. Hinz (1989);
G- H. Vogel (1992)