Werkbundsiedlung  

In 1932, the "Werkbundsiedlung," a development consisting of one-family houses, was built in Vienna. It was an epitome of all that liberal modernism stood for. Generations of architectural students have been taken to visit it. The designers included such widely reputed Austrian and international architects as Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Ernst A. Plischke, Richard Neutra and Gerrit Rietveld. Josef Frank was the initiator and organizer, and he also contributed the keynote design. The coming political events cast their shadow before them. The modernist movement did not remain unaffected by these developments. Soon after the `Werk-bundsiedlung" was finished, the `Werkbund" itself split up. Headed by Holzmeister, the "New Werkbund" was largely spared the spiteful attacks of the rightwing press. Not so the "Old Werkbund." A campaign of denigration was launched especially against its prominent Jewish leader Josef Frank. He drew his own conclusions and in 1934 emigrated to Stockholm with his Swedish wife.

Foto: Karolinsky-Archive