Prussian Academy of Art
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The Prussian Academy of Art (Preußische Akademie der Künste) was an art school set up in Berlin in 1694/1696 by Frederick I of Prussia, crown prince of Brandenburg and later king of Prussia. It had a decisive influence on art and its development in the German-speaking world throughout its existence, until it was finally disbanded in 1955.
After the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome and the Académies Royales in Paris, the Prussian Academy of Art was the oldest institution of its kind in Europe, with a similar foundational mission to other royal academies of that time, such as the Real Academia Española in Madrid, the Royal Society in London, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm or the Russian Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg. For a long time it was also the German artists' society and training organisation, whilst the Academy's Senate became Prussia's art authority and arbiter of taste.