a_showcase 25: Displaced and Ignored. Three Architects’ Lives

Philipp Mettauer, Institute for Jewish History in Austria, St. Pölten
Sabine Plakolm, Institute of History of Art, Building Archaeology and Restoration, Vienna University of Technology
Andreas Hofer, Institute of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture, Vienna University of Technology
Iris Meder, art and architectural historian
moderated by Monika Platzer, Az W

We follow the trail of three architects whose lives were radically and unavoidably altered by the Nazi regime. Philipp Mettauer talks about the work ban on Jewish professionals, about persecution and fleeing, the difficulties of starting again in a foreign country, and how rare returns home have been. Sabine Plakolm talks about Liane Zimbler (1892–1987), the first woman in Austria to be granted a civil architect’s license, in February 1938, shortly before having to flee the country. Andreas Hofer shares his insight into the life of Karl Brunner (1887–1960), who had been working as an urban designer in South America since 1929. Brunner was offered a post as a professor at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna in 1937, although he couldn’t accept it for political reasons and was not recalled to Austria until 1948. Iris Meder introduces the Loos student Josef Berger (1898–1989), who emigrated to Palestine in 1934 because of the political situation and then moved on to London in 1937.