Veranstaltungshinweis:
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky – Architecture, Politics, Gender
Vortrag von Bernadette Reinhold im Rahmen der The Arc of History Lecture Series im Austrian Cultural Forum in London
Lecture
Austrian Cultural Forum London
Lecture 5: Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky – Architecture, Politics, Gender
By Dr. Bernadette Reinhold
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (1897–2000) is considered one of the first female architects in Austria and a pioneer of social architecture, a women's rights activist and last but not least, a heroine of the resistance to the Nazi dictatorship. With her most famous and internationally acclaimed design project, "The Frankfurt Kitchen" (1926/27), she entered the modernist canon.
The lecture will give insight into the fascinating biography of the Viennese-born Schütte-Lihotzky, who also lived and worked in Frankfurt, the Soviet Union, Japan, China, London, Paris, Turkey and Cuba. Her architectural work is inextricably linked with her social and political commitment, throughout her 103 years of life – an icon of architectural history and pioneering role model.
The Arc of History Lecture Series: Austria 1900 - 2020
The series commences with the last decades and the onset of Modernity from 1900. This was a profoundly significant period both artistically and intellectually, with far-reaching influence and importance, both nationally and internationally. Against this backdrop, the lectures consider significant Jewish contributions to the period, alongside the darker forces gathering momentum, culminating in the tragic fate of Austrian Jewry and other victims.
Austrian complicity, together with a postwar victim narrative, led many to shun a country that formally had nurtured some of the greatest achievements and minds of the early 20th century. With a growing recognition of the need to reassess its history, Austria finally commenced, in the mid-nineties, its own unique process to repair some of the mid-century rupture. The announcement in 2020, enshrined in law, that all Austrian descendants of NS persecution have the right of citizenship, is an important and significant contribution to this process. To date, over 35,000 people from across the world have acquired Austrian citizenship and it is estimated that the numbers will rise considerably in the next decade.
The final lecture in the series will reflect on the implications and meaning of citizenship in a country where connection has often been associated with tragedy and ambivalence, and many have rarely, if ever, even visited. As a new chapter opens, perhaps a new sense of purpose, opportunity and responsibility emerges.
Tickets via im Austrian Cultural Forum London