German-speaking refugee women architects before the Second World War

Poppelreuter, T

Abstract

In Germany and Austria women began to enter the architectural profession in the late 19th century and by the late 1930s some women architects had found working opportunities. After Hitler seized power in Germany in 1933, discrimination and anti-Semitism led to an unprecedented refugee crisis that forced many into exile. Among those that fled to the USA were Marie Frommer (1890-1976), Liane Zimbler (1892-1987), Elsa Gidoni (1901-1978), Karola Bloch (1905-1994) Hilde Reiss (1909-2002) and Elisabeth Scheu Close (1912-2011).
Recent research has investigated the complex relationships and networks within which German-speaking exiles operated and that fostered transcultural exchanges in times of crisis. Other studies identified women architects who graduated during the Weimar Republic and discussed and contextualised the cultural and political situation that supported and/or hindered women architects at that time.
On the basis of such research this paper merges and contextualises the biographies of these six refugee women architects in an effort to outline the complex networks within which they operated before and after becoming exiles.

• Start Date: Jun 13, 2018
• End Date: Jun 16, 2018
• Publication Date: Jun 13, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jan 10, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 10, 2019
• Pages: 697-705
• Book Title: Women's Creativity since the Modern Movement (1918-2018) : Toward a New Perception and Reception
• ISBN: 9789610501060
• Publisher URL: https://omp.zrc-sazu.si/zalozba/catalog/book/1640
• Additional Information: Access Information : This book is licensed with a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence and is available for free download via the publisher's website at the official URL above.; Event Type : Conference