August Schoenborn

August Gottlieb Schoenborn (October 20, 1827 - January 24, 1902) was a German American architect who helped design the United States Capitol dome.

Life and career

He was born in October 1827 in the town of Suhl, Germany, a major arms manufacturing center. He attended the city's public schools, and after graduation worked as a mechanic for three years. Schoenborn enrolled at the Technical Institute and School of Art in 1843 in Erfurt, where he studied architecture. He emigrated to the United States in 1849 and settled in Wisconsin. Two years later, he moved to Washington, D.C.

In June 1851, he found a position as a draftsman under Thomas U. Walter, Architect of the Capitol. With only a small scale model and some very rough drawings to work from, Schoenborn produced highly detailed architectural plans. Walter did not initially believe that Schoeborn had done the work himself, but was quickly satisifed that Schoenborn was a trained architect. President Millard Fillmore was also highly impressed with Schoeborn's work, and often visited him in the architectural offices at the Capitol.

Schönborn, Rhein-Hunsrück

Schönborn is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Simmern, whose seat is in the like-named town.

Geography

Location

The municipality lies in the central Hunsrück between the Kauerbach and Simmerbach valleys. To the east lies Simmern, some 4 km away, and to the west, Kirchberg, also some 4 km away.

History

Archaeological finds are known from as early as Late La Tène times. In 1290, Schönborn had its first documentary mention. The village was part of Palatinate-Simmern and, beginning in 1673, Electoral Palatinate. Beginning in 1794, Schönborn lay under French rule. In 1814 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. Since 1946, it has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

House of Schönborn

The House of Schönborn is a noble and mediatised former sovereign princely family from the former Holy Roman Empire. Several members of the family have held high offices of the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire over the course of centuries, including as Bishops, Prince-Bishops, Cardinals and Prince-Electors. In addition to several family members having been elected monarchs of ecclesiastical principalities—the Electorate of Mainz, the Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg, the Prince-Bishopric of Worms, the Prince-Bishopric of Speyer, the Electorate of Trier, and the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg—the family possessed a fiefdom in Franconia that held imperial immediacy, and was thus a principality of the Holy Roman Empire, the state of Schönborn.

History

Schönborn appeared first in the County of Katzenelnbogen in 1373 when Gilbrecht of Schönborn, a vassal, served Eberhard V of Katzenelnbogen. Later it was a German statelet ruled by the Schönborn family located in Franconia and areas at the Main River in Germany, located to the south of Bamberg and to the southeast of Würzburg.