27 Facts About Josef Hoffmann

Josef Hoffmann was an Austrian-Moravian architect and designer.

Josef Hoffmann was among the founders of Vienna Secession and co-establisher of the Wiener Werkstatte.

Josef Hoffmann's father encouraged him to become a lawyer or a civil servant, and sent him to a prestigious upper school, but he was very unhappy there.

Josef Hoffmann immediately went to work on the design of the Secession Building, the first gallery of the movement, designing the foyer and the office, and planning the first exhibitions in the building.

Josef Hoffmann wrote his first manifesto for the Secession at this time, calling for buildings which were stripped of useless ornament.

Josef Hoffmann wrote that the basic elements of the new style were authenticity in the use of materials, unity of decor, and the choice of a style adapted to the site.

Josef Hoffmann designed the Vienna arts exhibition for the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition, which exposed the Secession style to an international audience.

Josef Hoffmann favored the use of geometric forms, especially squares, and black and white surfaces, explaining later that "these forms, intelligible to everyone, had never appeared in previous styles".

Josef Hoffmann was in charge of designing the frequent exhibits held in the Secession gallerias, including the setting for Gustav Klimt's celebrated frieze devoted to Beethoven.

Josef Hoffmann was married in 1898 to Anna Hladik, and they had a son, Wolfgang, born in 1900.

Josef Hoffmann was extremely occupied with Paris Exposition of 1900, and the other exhibitions in Vienna.

Josef Hoffmann built several town or country houses for his colleagues and friends, as well as a Lutheran church and a house for the pastor in St Aegyd am Neuwald, in lower Austria.

Josef Hoffmann designed a wide variety of objects for the Wiener Werkstatte.

In 1907, Josef Hoffmann was co-founder of the Deutscher Werkbund, and in 1912 of the Osterreichischer Werkbund.

In 1905, Josef Hoffmann finished his first great work in the town of Purkersdorf near Vienna, the Sanatorium Purkersdorf.

Josef Hoffmann presented the plans in 1905, but the construction, in three stages, was not completed until 1911.

Josef Hoffmann designed the Fledermaus chairs, which became a symbol of the style.

Josef Hoffmann had married the industrialist Anton Knips, who was a major patron of the Werkstatte.

Josef Hoffmann had been a founding member of the Austrian Werkbund, founded in 1914, modeled after the celebrated German Werkbund.

Josef Hoffmann organized several exhibitions for the Werkbund, experimenting with modern architecture.

One innovative feature added by Josef Hoffmann was a glass-enclosed stairway on the exterior of each house, which made the interior of the house larger and gave variety to the facade.

The original entrance portal and sculptural decoration designed by Josef Hoffmann were never made due to budget difficulties, but their absence added to the final priority of structure.

In 1945, following the War, Josef Hoffmann rejoined the Vienna Secession, the artistic movement that he, Klimt and Otto Wagner had dramatically quit in 1905.

Josef Hoffmann was elected President of the Secession from 1948 to 1950.

Josef Hoffmann died on May 7,1956, at the age of eighty-five, at his apartment at 33 Salesianergasse in Vienna.

Josef Hoffmann tried to bring out the best in each member of his class by means of challenging assignments, which were occasionally work on real commissions.

The critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock in 1929 wrote, "In Germany as well as in Austria, Josef Hoffmann's manner has profoundly influenced the New Tradition".