The Wiener Werkstätte (WW) was an association of “artists and artisans” founded in 1903 based on the ideas and needs of its founders Josef Hoffmann und Koloman Moser, who were also professors at the Viennese School of Arts and Crafts. Together with the first financier Fritz Waerndorf, they would make history with an exceptional company.

The story of the WW often excludes the countless female employees who fell into oblivion. Now, for the first time, they will take center stage again.

Much less famous than the Wiener Werkstätte with its wide range of products is the association Wiener Kunst im Hause (Viennese Art in the Home). It was already founded in 1901 by graduates of the School of Arts and Crafts and existed until the 1930s. In some way, it can be considered the forerunner of the WW.

However, as it was much less well connected economically, it was not able to keep up with the new competition of professors and the wealthy haute bourgeoisie.

Jutta Sika and Therese Trethan together with eight other graduates of the School of Arts and Crafts—five men and three women—founded the association “Wiener Kunst im Hause” and, subsequently, also worked for the Wiener Werkstätte as well as for other notable producers.

JUTTA SIKA

Artisan, painter, drawing teacher

Jutta Sika was born in Linz in 1877 and died in Vienna in 1964. Her artistic thirst for knowledge was huge: She attended the Education and Research Institute for Graphics in Vienna and, subsequently, studied at the School of Arts and Crafts with painting classes by Koloman Moser as well as ceramics classes by Friedrich Linke.

The scope of her creative work ranged from designs for porcelain, glass, and metal works to fashion, murals, contributions to exhibitions, and the equipment of a pantomime for an artists’ festival to designs for candy containers and Christmas tree decoration for the pastry shop Demel in the 1930s.

In her later years, she more turned to painting and worked as a drawing teacher. For the WW, she designed seven postcards with motifs from Tirol and a Krampus card.

THERESE TRETHAN  

Artisan, fashion designer, painter, specialist teacher

Therese Trethan was born in Vienna in 1879 where she also died in 1957. She studied at the School of Arts and Crafts for five years and attended architecture classes by Oskar Beyer, painting classes by Koloman Moser, and ceramics classes by Friedrich Linke. 

She was a founding member of the “Wiener Kunst im Hause” and worked for the Wiener Werkstätte for five years. In the program of the WW from 1905 she was listed with her initials as the only woman—a great exception and, consequently, proof of her skills as an artisan and her artistic quality.

Among other things, she painted many objects like boxes, wooden eggs, toys, or also screens designed by Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser—which might also have been the reason for her to be mentioned in the work program. In any case, it was a sign of great appreciation for Therese Trethan albeit the path towards artistic emancipation was still long. In 1919, she was finally awarded the title of a “specialist teacher for trade training schools,” proof of her dedication to this field.

MARIA LIKARZ

Teacher of a specialized course, painter, commercial artist, fashion designer, textile and enamel works

Maria Likarz was born in Przemyśl (Poland) in 1893 and died in Rome in 1971. At the age of 18, she received education at the School of Arts for Women and Girls in Vienna. Subsequently, she studied at the School of Arts and Crafts with classes by Josef Hoffmann (architecture), Rosalia Rothansl (textiles), Adele von Stark (enamel), and others.

Already as a student, she began designing postcards for the WW and also her first major contribution to the portfolio Mode Wien 1914/5 took place during this time.

In addition to beaded, leather, and enamel works, she designed a lot of commercial art. More than 200 textile patterns by Likarz have been preserved as well as designs for wallpapers, mostly produced in Cologne, as well as porcelain executed in Vienna.

Furthermore, she headed the fashion department of the WW from 1924 to 1925—she can rightly be called an all-rounder.

MATHILDE FLÖGL

Artisan, graphic artist, trade teacher

Mathilde Flögl was born in Brünn (Brno, Czech Republik) in 1893 and died in Salzburg in 1958. She acquired a degree at the Imperial and Royal School for Weaving in Zwittau (Svitavy, Czech Republik) and, subsequently, studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Vienna where she attended classes by Josef Hoffmann and Adele von Stark.

Her father was the director of the Imperial and Royal School for Textile Industry in Brünn, a fact that most definitely influenced her artistic career.

Already at the age of 21, she participated in the portfolios Mode Wien 1914/5 and Das Leben einer Dame, already revealing her interest in fashion. Her first designs for the WW were so-called war glasses in 1915. One year later she joined the artists’ workshop.

For the anniversary catalogue on the occasion of the 25-year anniversary of the Wiener Werkstätte, she designed the entire graphic concept in 1928. The cover was designed by Vally Wieselthier and Gudrun Baudisch. Her repertoire also included murals and interior design.

After the closure of the Wiener Werkstätte, she opened her own studio for textile patterns and fashion designs. Three years later, Flögel relocated to Czechoslovakia where she worked as a teacher at various schools for weaving and textile industry.

In 1941—still during the war—, she returned to Vienna and became a lecturer at the experimental workshop for the arts and crafts association run by Josef Hoffmann. Here, they continued their close collaboration.

In the 1950s, she taught design and fashion illustration at the Federal School for Female Industries in Salzburg. She mainly dedicated the last years of her life to passing on her knowledge.

FELICE RIX

Artisan, textile artist, university professor

Felice Rix was born in Vienna in 1893 and died in Kyoto in 1967. After her education at the Education and Research Institute for Graphics, she began studying at the School of Arts and Crafts in 1912 and attended classes for textiles, architecture, and enamel as well as classes for sculpture by Anton Hanak. Already during her studies, she contributed to the portfolios Mode Wien 1914/5 as well as Das Leben einer Dame.

After her studies, she designed war glasses and worked in the artists’ workshop.

In 1918, she and some female colleagues designed the murals in the new WW textile department at Kärntner Straße 32. This was the women artists’ first major collaborative piece of work.

After getting married to architect Isaburo Ueno in 1925, the two relocated to Kyoto. On numerous visits to Vienna, she continued delivering textile designs for the WW also for several years after her move.

However, soon after, her great university career began. She was assigned to teach experimental design at the Institute of Craftsmanship in Takasaki and, afterwards, in Osaka at the Research Institute for Architecture and Industrial Engineering. In the 1950s, she became a professor at the Kyoto City University of Arts. The crowning achievement of her career was the founding of her own private school in 1963—the International Design Institute.

She brought artistic esprit from Vienna to Japan and allowed herself to be inspired by Japanese tradition—a successful symbiosis that turned her into an international artist with a policy of expansion.

Even though most women artists of the Wiener Werkstätte were active in more than one creative field and, besides the design process, mostly cultivated their artisan skills, some do stand out for their innovations, richness in ideas, and business acumen.

ROSE KRENN

Artisan, ceramicist, textile artist

Rose Krenn was born in Slovenia in 1884 and died in Innsbruck in 1970. She studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Prague and Vienna.

She learned from Michael Powolny (ceramics) and, additionally, she was one of Josef Hoffmann’s few female students to design and realize furniture herself. In her diploma from 1913, Josef Hoffmann wrote very indicatively of the times:

„For a woman, Miss Rosa Krenn has an exceptionally strong sense of form and a firm aptitude for autonomous creation of forms. She is particularly talented with regard to surface decoration and interior design. Her execution of ceramics shows a strong sense of autonomy and a great feeling for materials.”

In 1912, a cigar cabinet based on her design was created for the spring exhibition at the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry (today’s MAK). It was immediately acquired for the collection—a highly rare example of feminine furniture art.

She got married, went to Tyrol, and became a teacher there. For the WW, she designed textile patterns, boxes, Christmas tree decoration, painted Easter eggs, and more for eight years.

EILFRIEDE BERBALK

Master silversmith, specialist teacher, pioneer

Eilfriede Berbalk was born in Vienna in 1900 and died in Krems in 1987. Her dream of studying architecture didn’t come true as women were not admitted to this course—but she found her calling elsewhere.

She was educated at the School of Arts for Women and Girls and attended the course on metal work by Georg Klimt which prompted her to become a silversmith. At the WW, she was given the opportunity of a 2-year apprenticeship with a subsequent apprenticeship certification exam. She pursued this goal with dedication and graduated with the master craftswoman’s diploma in 1924 as Austria’s first female master silversmith.

Following her pioneering spirit, she founded her own workshop in Vienna’s 18th district where she deliberately only accepted and promoted female apprentices. As a lecturer she later returned to the School of Arts for Women and Girls where she headed the metal class.

KLARA POSNANSKI

Textile artist

Little is known about Klara Posnanski. She was presumably the daughter of a rabbi.

As of 1927, she had her own “workshop for textile refinement based on personal artistic designs.” She developed her own airbrush-printing technique which allowed for a particularly fine color gradient, the so-called ombré effect.

Until 1931, she created approximately 70 textile patterns for the WW which in form and color anticipated the 1960s. After this period, there are no further records of her.

MELA KOEHLER

Graphic artist, fashion designer, costume designer—the double specialist

Mela Koehler was born in Vienna in 1885 and died in Stockholm in 1960. Her studies at the School of Arts and Crafts with classes by Koloman Moser (painting) and Rosalia Rothansl (textiles) led the way for her future artistic career and from the beginning fostered her strengths—graphic art and fashion.  

She headed a course on aesthetics at women’s trade schools for seamstresses and dressmakers and received a scholarship for Paris, an award that honored her abilities.   

Koehler mostly designed fashion and, between 1907 and 1912, more than 150 motifs for postcards and table cards on the subject of fashion for the WW. These highly artistic so-called “Small Works of Art”—it was also possible to purchase frames for them—were an affordable and important medium for advertisement.

In Sweden she systematically continued her work as a graphic artist and fashion designer.

The women artists’ great mentors were mostly the professors and the founders of the WW, Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser. Also a row of other notable people at the School of Arts and Crafts and the company Wiener Werkstätte had major influence on them. Here, one stands out most prominently: Dagobert Peche.