Austria: Margarete Shütte-Lihotzky
Born in 1897 in Vienna in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Margarete Shütte-Lihotzky is considered one of the first women architects of Austria. She was also the first woman to study architecture at Kunstgewerbeschule (now the University of Applied Arts Vienna, 1915). Shütte-Lihotzky moved to Frankfurt, Germany, to work with Ernst May on public houses, and she designed the “Frankfurt Kitchen” (1926), a low-cost standardized design that increased the functionality, hygiene, and efficiency of the culinary workspace. Shütte-Lihotzky worked in the Soviet Union (c. 1930-1937); London, England; Paris, France; and then Istanbul, Turkey, where she taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, Turkey (1938).
Shütte-Lihotzky joined the Austrian Communist Party (KPO, c. 1939). She was arrested in Vienna, Austria (1941), was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and remained imprisoned in Aichach, Bavaria, until she was liberated by U.S. troops at the end of World War II. After her release, Shütte-Lihotzky returned to Vienna, and she served as the first president of the Democratic Women’s Federation (1948). She published her memoir, Erinnerungen aus dem Widerstand (Memories of Resistance) in 1985. In honor of her accomplishments, the MAK Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna exhibited the works of Shütte-Lihotzky (1993). Amongst her other accomplishments, Shütte-Lihotzky earned the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria (1997), the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (1993), the City of Vienna Prize for Architecture (1980), and a Medal of Honour for Services to the Liberation of Austria (1978). Margarete Shütte-Lihotzky died in 2000 in Vienna.
References
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