Immanuel Kant’s House in Königsberg: Attempt at a 3D Reconstruction

Abstract

The house which Immanuel Kant bought in Königsberg in 1783 has not survived, having been pulled down in the late nineteenth century. Likewise, hardly any of the great philosopher’s personal belongings have survived. Many pieces of furniture and household utensils were auctioned off after his death. So the Kant museum had few original exhibits from the Königsberg thinker’s house, and almost all these artefacts were lost during the Second World War. Today, digital technologies make it possible to present a virtual picture of the various rooms, reconstruct the decorations and furniture characteristic of a Prussian urban dwelling in late eighteenth — early nineteenth centuries. With the help of 3D modelling and historical sources a realistic model of Kant’s house has been created, showing both the exterior and the interior. In addition to the paucity of sources, the task was complicated by technical problems due to the need to recreate several rooms at one location simultaneously. Reconstruction draws on several gen­uine objects from Kant’s house, now kept at museums in Germany. Also available are written and visual sources showing the exterior of the house and mentioning some furniture items located in the living room and elsewhere in the structure. Now 3D reconstructions have been made of the house’s exterior and the urban environment, the anterooms on the ground and first floors, the lecture hall, kitchen, study, drawing room, bedroom, library and dining room.