The work of the German Middle-Rhine and Mosel region architect Hermann Nebel (1816-1893) is the topic of this monographic study, the author's dissertation (University of Cologne, 2005). Benthien's master's thesis (2000) had already focused on Nebel's legacy, most prominently his graphic production held by the Mittelrhein-Museum in Coblenz. As one of Coblenz' most active architects of the second half of the nineteenth century, Nebel and his career awaited scholarly attention until this publication.

Issued from an affluent family of liberal businessmen, Hermann was the second of three generations to take up the profession of architect. Hermann's father, Ferdinand Jakob Nebel (1782-1860) had trained under David Gilly at the Bauakademie in Berlin. His son, Otto (born 1855) stepped in his father's footsteps as Hermann's career was winding down. Hermann Nebel trained in Karlsruhe under Heinrich Hübsch, then at the Royal Academy in Munich led by Friedrich Gärtner and Georg Friedrich Ziebland. He completed his studies at the Academy in Berlin between November 1839 and May 1840. During the four years after the conclusion of his studies Nebel traveled extensively, sometimes in the company of his father, visiting Italy, France, England, Scandinavia, Greece and the Bosphorus. After the completion of his travels, Nebel joined his father's studio no doubt enjoying the benefits of well-connected social status. In December 1848, Nebel succeeded Johann Claudius von Lassaulx as official City Architect for Coblenz, a position he held until his retirement in 1883. The nominal salary for this appointment encouraged the private commissions which Nebel sought and executed in the Coblenz area during his forty-year career. The majority of projects were Catholic churches or chapels in outlying communities. Other commissions included three synagogues and secular buildings both public and private, also mostly outside of Coblenz.

This publication proceeds methodically through four sections. The first includes a literature analysis and examination of extant sources, a detailed biography and survey of the urban and regional context, including prevailing cultural currents. The second section focuses on Nebel's work: its professional context, analysis of formal vocabulary, sorting out influences to conclude with a small section on the extant graphic production. Nebel's style is treated in a brief third section, followed by a catalog of the architect's works. Divided into religious, then secular buildings, student projects and false attributions the catalog entries offer a systematic documentation of the architect's production. For buildings, a complete entry includes attribution, history of the structure and extensive description, all meticulously footnoted. The concluding scholarly apparatus includes bibliography and index. The line maps and black and white illustrations are not copious but appropriately located in the text and sufficient to provide visual evidence of the architect's production. Its small paperback format makes the publication easy to consult.

Beyond the carefully reconstructed biography, career and corpus of the architect, the work includes sections such as an explanation of architectural education in Prussia in the first half of the nineteenth century or the shift from Neo-Romanesque to Neo-Gothic style toward the middle of the century. Against this logically presented background material, Benthien's primary focus and the driving force of her investigation is formal analysis. Both in her general discussion and in the catalog of individual works, the greatest emphasis is on the physical features of each structure. It is from the meticulously conducted examination of extant structures and, when they survive, the architect's plans and drawings, that the author elaborates her arguments to include or exclude specific structures from the author's accepted corpus. Extensive physical documentation and intimate familiarity with the formal characteristics of the buildings considered systematically, either in isolation or comparatively, enables the author to make building attributions in the absence of textual evidence. She demonstrates a thorough mastery of the architect's predilections for specific forms or techniques, and their variations, supported by documentary evidence wherever it could be tracked down. This approach is understandable given that the author's initial investigation of Hermann Nebel's work was through the architect's graphic production in her Master's thesis. Grounded in detailed examination of extant buildings, and other sources while fully admitting the lacunae in extant documentation, this is a thorough, painstaking piecing together of built and graphic evidence to reconstitute the work of this reasonably productive architect.

From this examination, Herman Nebel emerges as reliable, frugal, and adaptable to the demands of clients with limited budgets. Frequent references to the financial constraints of his commissions were reflected in the modest nature of his production where Benthien identifies individual stylistic characteristics which brand his production. On the other hand, the suggestion that Nebel, competing for commissions with the protégé of the Coblenz jurist August Reichensperger, Vincenz Statz, shifted from Neo-Romanesque to Neo-Gothic style in his designs pegs him as a trend follower rather than a trend setter. The work of architects such as Nebel remains the product of influences, which Benthien outlines convincingly with references to the relevant literature and other figures active at different stages of his career. Nebel served his patrons well with buildings which reflect a sober, practical, and derivative aesthetic with nonetheless distinctive characteristics of a personal hand and eye. The author concludes that some less financially restrictive commissions did enable Nebel to demonstrate his creative potential.

This study compiles systematically and competently all that could be brought to bear on the production of this architect, thereby opening a window into the workings of the profession in the Middle-Rhine-Mosel region during the second half of the nineteenth century. Unless additional sources are located, this work is as comprehensive an investigation as can be carried out into the career of a respectable contributor to the design of mid-nineteenth century buildings meeting the religious and secular architectural needs of small Rhineland communities.

Carried out methodically and organized logically, this study is the Hermann Nebel reference. Possibly because of the anticipated reference function of this publication, designed more for consultation than cover to cover reading, the text is frequently somewhat repetitive with overlap in coverage of background material. With mastery of the corpus and context, the author does proceed cautiously through her material shying away from broader strokes or conclusions. A parallel with contemporary English Ecclesiological Society or a contrast with the French Neo-Grec architects would have given greater breadth to this focused study. We nonetheless have to be grateful for such a thorough and usable monograph which should provide the author with a solid stepping stone into further publications on the complex nineteenth century architectural history in the territories which were to become united as Germany.

Micheline Celestine Nilsen