ABSTRACT
The Munich opera house, rebuilt after a blaze in 1825, reflects the state of the art in construction technology in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Modern elements of timber engineering as well as recourse to older construction techniques from the sixteenth century were combined to create one of the largest contemporary opera houses in Europe. The building was later destroyed during the second world war. This paper uses archival research to construct the first model of the pre-war state of this historical building, which in turn sheds light on whether the archival materials were correctly interpreted. The functionality and rigidity of the designs can be represented and understood with the model. In addition, for the first time the previous constructions of Carl von Fischer can be discussed, since detailed constructional drawings of the predecessor building (which burnt down in 1823) could be found.
