Wiegmann was born on 17 April 1804 in
Nordstemmen. He came from a military family. His father was a Lieutenant (later Captain) in the Tenth Infantry Regiment and was killed at the
Battle of Waterloo, where he was serving as an
adjutant to Colonel . As a child, he often visited St.Dionysius Church in Nordstemmen and its
Gothic architecture left a deep impression on him. He began by studying architecture, mathematics and astronomy at the "Ratsgymnasium" in Hanover, where his family had relocated after his father's death. One of his childhood friends was
August Heinrich Andreae, who would later become the City Architect for Hanover. After 1823, he and Andreae attended the
University of Göttingen, where he studied history, the natural sciences and archaeology and was especially impressed by the lectures of
Karl Otfried Müller. He began his art studies in
Darmstadt with the City Architect,
Georg Moller, who encouraged him to supplement his class work through practical research in Rome. Accordingly, in 1828, he went to work for the
German Archaeological Institute, investigating the
wall paintings at
Pompeii. He remained there until 1832 and became part of the German art colony. After his return, he devoted himself to creating vedute of Hanover; oil paintings, watercolors, lithographs and etchings, which he published as an album in 1835. During this time, his only architectural work involved a tomb vault for Johann Ludwig Söhlmann (1797–1834), a leather manufacturer. He also became a member of the "" (Art Association) and served on the committee that chose works for their exhibitions.
His career in Düsseldorf He was, however, unsatisfied with his career in Hanover and moved to
Düsseldorf in 1836. There he published a book based on his work in Pompeii:
The Painting of the Ancients in Application and Technique. This resulted in a dispute with the architect,
Leo von Klenze, who questioned Wiegmann's conclusions. In 1839, he designed a new system for roof
joints that he described in a book called
The Construction of Chain Bridges According to the Triangle System and Their Application to Roof Joints. However, a virtually identical system was invented at about the same time by the French engineer
Camille Polonceau, who used it to build stations for the Paris-Versailles railway, so it has come to be known as a "Polonceau Roof". He was a member of the "", serving on its administrative council. After 1844, he edited its official publication, the
Correspondenzblatt. In 1857, he was named a corresponding member of the
Royal Institute of British Architects. During his later years, he suffered from a chest ailment (possibly
tuberculosis) and resigned his positions at the Kunstverein shortly before his death. His son, Arnold, was killed at the
Battle of Spicheren in 1870. Two years later, his personal papers were destroyed in a fire at the Kunstverein. == Notable students ==