On 13 March, 1781, the Prussian architect, urban planner and painter Karl Friedrich Schinkel was born in Neuruppin (Brandenburg). His father was a pastor and his mother the daughter of a merchant. In 1794 the family moved to Berlin where Schinkel attended the grammar school "Zum Grauen Kloster", leaving it in 1798. Schinkel had his first ardent debate with the architect Friedrich Gilly during an exhibition. Queen Louise of Prussia, the wife of King Frederick William III, commisioned Schinkel to redesign her bedchamber in the Kronprinzenpalais. His first trip to Italy took place in 1803. After 1815 the planner oversaw the Prussian Building Commission and in 1820 was appointed to a professorship at the Bauakademie. In 1816 Schinkel had his first encounter with Goethe. In 1882 he was assigned to build the Museum am Lustgarten in Berlin. In 1831 he was appointed Oberbaudirektor (chief building director). Schinkel died in Berlin on 9 October, 1841.