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ARCHITECTURE
throughout the new or newly-built streets, it is impossible to deny the effect of palatial dignity they impart to the city. In the matter of country houses the French architect is less fortunate ; when he attempts what he regards as the rural picturesque, his good taste seems entirely to desert him, and the maison de campagne (I ig. 28) is generally a mere riot of gimcrack. The great military success of Germany in 18/ 0, and the founding of the German empire, gave, as is usual in
such crises, a decided impetus to public architecture, of which the central and most important visible sign is the German Houses of Parliament, by Professor Germany Wallot, whose design was selected in a competition. There is something essentially German in the quality of this national building; classic architecture minus its refinement. The detail is coarse ; the finish of the end pavilions of the principal front absolutely unmeaning—mere architectural rodomontade ; the central
Fig. 29 Interior, Houses of Parliament, Berlin. (Wallot.) cupola of glass and iron, on a square plan, probably the ugliest central feature on any great building in Europe ; and yet there is undeniable power about the whole thing ; it is the characteristic product of a conquering nation not reticent in its triumph. The interior of the vestibule is shown in Fig. 29. The new cathedral at Berlin, by Professor Raschdorff, is the other most important German work of the period (Fig. 30) ; a building very striking and unusual in plan, but absolutely commonplace in its architectural detail; school classic of the most ordinary type, without even any of those elements of originality
which are to be found in the Houses of Parliament. A curious feature in the plan (Fig. 31) is that the building, alone of any cathedral we can recall, has its principal general entrance at the side, the end entrance being reserved for a special imperial cortege on special occasions, the cathedral also serving the second purpose of an imperial mausoleum. Theatre building has been carried on very largely in Germany, and among its productions the Lessing Theatre at Berlin (Fig. 32) (von der Hude and Hennicke) is a favourable example of German classic at its best, besides being, like most modern German
