Gottfried Semper who was born in Hamburg first appeared in public as an author. Releasing a booklet entitled «Vorläufige Bemerkungen über farbige Architektur und Plastik bei den Alten» in 1834 which resolved the «Pariser Polychromiestreit», he significantly changed architecture at that time. Still the same year he was appointed to the Academy of Arts in Dresden. His practical career too began there with the construction of the «Hoftheater». The Urbanistic concepts followed regarding the design of the «barocker Zwinger» which should become a cultural forum of the Royal Saxon capital and residence Dresden. In line of these workings the construction of the «Gemäldegalerie» (1848-1854) was realised.
His creative period in Dresden was abruptly stopped in May 1849. After street battles concerning the constitution of the kingdom Semper who participated in the uprising on the democratic side and who was searched for by warrant of apprehension had to escape from Saxony. After a trip to Paris, unsuccessful due to missing orders, he relocated to London in 1851. He did not do better there but he had at least the opportunity to work scientifically.
In December 1854 he accepted the appointment to Professor of Architecture at the Federal Polytechnic in Zurich (from 1911 Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich) by the newly established «Schulrat». During his stay in Switzerland Semper did not confine himself to teaching, he also erected several buildings: inter alia the main building of the ETH, the observatory at the Schmelzbergstrasse 25 in Zurich, the Villa Fierz at the Zürichbergstrasse 8 in Zurich, the town house in Winterthur as well as the Villa Garbald in Castasegna/Bergell which is the unique construction of Semper to the south of the Alps.
During his term in Zurich he also published the first volume of his theoretical manual «Der Stil in den technischen und tektonischen Künsten. Ein Handbuch für Techniker, Künstler und Kunstfreunde». Released in 1860 it attracted attention particularly in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Semper gave up his professorship in Zurich in 1871 in order to realise the finishes of the «Wiener Hofburg», a project he designed as an expert in 1869. At that time he also accepted the order of the Saxon king to rebuild the «Hoftheater» which burned down in 1869. Semper only supervised the construction works from afar and he could not participate in the inauguration owing to ill health. In 1879 he resigned from his position in Vienna and moved to Rome where he died in 1879 and where he was buried at the protestant cemetery at the «Piramide di Caio Cestio».