Ursula Prokop On the Jewish Legacy in Viennese Architecture The contribution of Jewish architects to building in Vienna 1868–1938 1 Contents Preface ............................................................................................................................... 5 1 The beginnings .............................................................................................................. 9 1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 9 1.2 The lone individuals: Wilhelm Fraenkel and Josef Unger – palaces for the nobility and workers’ housing .......................................................................................................................... 11 2 The students of Friedrich von Schmidt ....................................................................... 18 2.1 Max Fleischer, Wilhelm Stiassny and their circle – the controversy about Jewish self- understanding in the context of synagogue building .................................................................... 18 2.2 Karl König – a Jewish professor .................................................................................................. 32 3 The students of Karl König before the First World War ............................................ 37 3.1 The development of the modern big city – new kinds of building commissions ......................... 37 3.1.1 The department store ......................................................................................................... 37 3.1.2 The residential and commercial building .......................................................................... 40 3.1.3 Banks and insurance companies ........................................................................................ 50 3.2 New directions in synagogue building ......................................................................................... 53 3.2.1 Projects that never came to fruition and the buildings that followed them – Ernst Lindner and Oskar Marmorek .................................................................................. 53 3.2.2 Innovative religious buildings on the path to modernism – Ignaz Reiser and Arthur Grünberger ............................................................................................................. 58 3.3 Hartwig Fischel – a student of Karl König in the artistic and intellectual circles of Viennese modernism .................................................................................................................... 64 4 Master builders and architects without an academic education – the heyday of apartment house building. Three case studies: Leopold Fuchs, Neumann Tropp and Ernst Epstein ............................................................................................. 66 5 The students of Karl König in the interwar period – the ‘second Viennese modernism’ ................................................................................................................. 75 5.1 Josef Frank and the Werkbundsiedlung ........................................................................................ 76 5.2 Oskar Strnad – blurring the boundaries to theatre and film .......................................................... 86 5.3 Oskar Wlach – Haus & Garten ..................................................................................................... 90 5.4 Walter Sobotka – the good and inexpensive object ...................................................................... 92 6 The circle around Adolf Loos ..................................................................................... 94 2 6.1 Jacques Groag and Paul Engelmann – the Wittgenstein House project ....................................... 95 6.2 Felix Augenfeld and Ernst Schwadron – other protagonists of Wiener Wohnraumkultur ......................................................................................................................... 105 6.3 The architectural partnership of Josef Berger and Martin Ziegler – buildings of ‘Red Vienna’ ....................................................................................................................................... 111 6.4 Heinrich Kulka and his services in promulgating Loos’ work ................................................... 114 7 Growing dissolution of Jewish identity – converts and partnerships with non-Jews ................................................................................................................... 117 7.1 Ernst Lichtblau ........................................................................................................................... 117 7.2 Borderline cases – Karl Jaray, Siegfried Drach, Felix Angelo Pollak and Gustav Schläfrig ..................................................................................................................................... 122 7.3 Partnerships with non-Jews ........................................................................................................ 129 7.3.1 Paul Fischel and Heinz Siller – traditional tendencies in housing................................... 129 7.3.2 Fritz Judtmann and Egon Riss – contemporary modernism ............................................ 132 7.3.3 Wilhelm Baumgarten and Josef Hofbauer – innovative school construction .................. 135 7.3.4 Rudolf Baumfeld and Norbert Schlesinger – shop premises that left their stamp on the city ........................................................................................................................ 138 8 Women pioneers in the area of architecture ............................................................. 139 8.1 Ella Briggs and ‘Red Vienna’ ..................................................................................................... 141 8.2 Liane Zimbler – interior design for the upper middle class ........................................................ 144 8.3 Friedl Dicker and Franz Singer – the utter simplicity of living .................................................. 147 8.4 Women from the arts and crafts who worked as interior designers ............................................ 150 9 The victims ............................................................................................................... 154 9.1 Transported directly to their death – Friedrich Schön, Stefan Fayans and Josef Sinnenberg .................................................................................................................................. 154 9.2 Unusual fates in the inferno of the Nazi era – Erich Ziffer, Jakob Reitzer, Leopold Schulz and Fritz Keller ............................................................................................................... 160 9.3 The victims of Theresienstadt – Heinrich Kestel and Leopold Steinitz ..................................... 164 10 Emigranten with a success story ............................................................................... 166 10.1 Friedrich Kiesler ......................................................................................................................... 167 10.2 Richard Neutra ........................................................................................................................... 169 10.3 Victor Gruen ............................................................................................................................... 171 11 The final obliteration ................................................................................................ 173 12 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 179 3 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 184 List of sources ..................................................................................................................................... 184 Research literature .............................................................................................................................. 186 Journals ............................................................................................................................................... 191 Internet links ....................................................................................................................................... 191 Archives and their abbreviations ........................................................................................................ 192 Illustrations .................................................................................................................... 194 4 Preface In recent decades much attention has been devoted to the phenomenon of the important, often decisive role played by Jewish artists and intellectuals in fin-de-siècle culture in Vienna. Interest in this period was awakened in particular by Carl Schorske’s pioneering study, which led subsequently to numerous exhibitions, research projects and publications.1 Whereas the Jewish role in the natural sciences, the humanities and the arts, in particular literature, theatre, film and music has been examined in some detail, so far the Jewish contribution to architecture has hardly been given any consideration. Jewish architects – if examined at all – have usually been looked at in the context of research into forced emigration,