Pitched roof
The Schinkel roof or Schinkel gable is the name given to the triangular gable that we often find as the upper end of Biedermeier furniture.
The Schinkel gable was named after the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who designed numerous buildings between 1800-1840, especially in the greater Berlin area.
Furniture construction has always been strongly oriented towards architecture. This is particularly evident in the example of Karl Friedrich Schinkel. In the first half of the 19th century, there was a veritable building boom in Berlin. Typical elements from architecture were adopted directly into furniture making. For example, the Schinkel roof first became widespread in early Biedermeier furniture made of mahogany and birch, which was popular in north-eastern Germany. Later in the Biedermeier period, we also find the Schinkel gable on cherry and walnut furniture, which tended to be built in central Germany.
