Since 2005, the house in Brtnice, Czech Republic where Josef Hoffmann was born has been playing host to temporary exhibitions
featuring themes related to Hoffman and his circle with the aim of keeping the life and work of this pioneering Austrian architect
alive in the public consciousness.
A joint branch of the Moravian Gallery in Brno and MAK Vienna.
Born in Brtnice/Pirnitz, Moravia, in 1870, Josef Hoffmann remained attached to the place of his birth until after World War
II. After his parents died in 1907, he refurnished the building in which he had been born—a Baroque town house in the
main square of the town—as a summer residence for himself and his sisters. The changes comprised a rearrangement of his
parents’ surviving late-Biedermeier household goods and template-based wall decorations as well as wooden décor and furniture
additions after Hoffmann’s designs for the Wiener Werkstätte. When refurbishing the house, the architect used his parents’
home as an experimental arena for his design ideas. In 1911, Hoffmann dedicated a contribution to the magazine Das Interieur to his parental home.
After the house had been confiscated in 1945, it was used by the local authorities, ultimately as the town library. After
the MAK exhibition Der barocke Hoffmann (Hoffmann as a Baroque Artist, 1992), which presented designs and objects by Josef Hoffmann in the Czech Republic again for
the first time, plans for the restoration of the building were made which encompassed the reconstruction of the wall decorations.
Since the completion of restoration work in 2004, the interiors of the Muzeum Rodný dům Josefa Hoffmanna have conveyed
an idea of the spatial effect Josef Hoffmann desired and of his definition of a modern native style informed by the import
of the Wiener Werkstätte, on which he had a decisive influence.
The Josef Hoffmann Museum, situated in the house where the artist was born, is located in Brtnice, Czech Republic and has
been run as a joint branch by the Moravian Gallery in Brno and the MAK in Vienna since 2006.
náměstí Svobody 263 588 32 Brtnice Czech Republic T +420 724 543 722
Opening Hours
May/Jun/Sep/Oct: Tue–Sun 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Jul/Aug: open daily 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Last at 4 p.m.
Admission
CZK 40 / reduced CZK 20
Contact MAK
Rainald Franz T + 43 1 711 36-220
A joint branch of the Moravian Gallery in Brno and the MAK, Vienna.
How to get there from Vienna
Take the “Donauufer” highway A22/E49/E59 and continue on the B303 towards Hollabrunn/Znojmo/Prague, pass Hollabrunn and continue
to the border crossing Kleinhaugsdorf/Znojmo; in Czechia, take the 38/E59 via Znojmo and Moravske Budejovice to Stonarov where
you turn off onto the 402; continue for three kilometers before turning off onto the 403; you will reach the center of Brtnice
after 4 kilometers.
