Baptised in Vienna in September 1693, the second son of Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Joseph Emanuel trained in his father's workshop, drafting projects and helping finish his father's engraved survey of world architecture. When the elder Fischer died in 1723 with the Karlskirche barely begun above its foundations, Joseph Emanuel took over the site and carried it to completion in 1737, along with several other paternal commissions left unfinished. He became imperial court architect in 1722 and first court architect in 1725, and was raised to Freiherr in 1735, largely for his engineering work rather than his buildings. Where his father built for tectonic effect, Joseph Emanuel favoured flatter, more rational facades, seen at the Hofburg's Winter Riding School, the Court Library and the Michaelertrakt. He died in Vienna in June 1742.
