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M argarete (“Grete”) Lihotzky was born on January 23, 1897 in Vienna into a well-off,
educated, liberal family. She was the first woman to study Architecture (1915-19)
at what was then the “kaiserlich-königliche Kunstgewerbeschule”, nowadays the
University of Applied Arts Vienna: Design under the architect Oskar Strnad and building
construction under Heinrich Tessenow. When conducting research for a student competi-
tion on the topic of “workers’ housing”, she encountered the enormous housing shortage
at the time. It is no coincidence that later on, working as an architect, she campaigned
for various new forms of housing, so as to enable acceptable living conditions for finan-
cially weak social groups. After graduation, Lihotzky worked with Adolf Loos in the site
office of the Friedensstadt housing development (1921), where she got to know the archi-
tect Ernst May, at the time still working in Breslau, who had come to Vienna for a tour of Aus: Das Neue Frankfurt 1930, Nr. 2/3
the city’s cooperative buildings. At the “Österreichischer Verband für Siedlungs- und
Kleingartenwesen” (1922-4) she then addressed the concept of the “core house”, which
involved people in the housing estates building simple, traditional types of structures
themselves or with the help of neighbors, and then gradually adding extensions. She also Grundriss Kindergarten Praunheim, 1930 • Floor plan Kindergarten Praunheim, 1930
designed first pieces of “uniform furniture” suitable for industrial production, as well as
a sensational kitchenette and scullery fitting based on the Taylor system. Ever since her
„The New Frankfurt Kitchen“ in „The Feminine Life“, 1930 Baukastensystem für Kindertagesheime, Wien 1968
time in Vienna, Grete Lihotzky had been very much impressed by Christine Frederick’s
trailblazing book “Die rationelle Haushaltsführung” and the latter’s studies of how to bet-
ter organize and simplify housework by using new household appliances, as she saw the
far-reaching emancipation of women from time-consuming housework as an important
aspect of female liberation. For this reason, for the first “New Frankfurt” buildings (“I had
no idea of kitchens and cooking, but the men around me forced me into it.” ) she desi-
gned a functional working kitchen only measuring around 1.90 meters wide by 3.40
meters long in keeping with the compact ‘Mitropa’ railway dining car kitchens.
The Frankfurt Kitchen was fitted in more than 10,000 apartments

Unlike traditional eat-in kitchens and upper-class kitchens designed with staff in mind, Kunstsammlung und Archiv der Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien Kunstsammlung und Archiv der Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien
these aimed at as efficient housekeeping as possible, but were to be connected to an
adjoining living room by a wide, for the most time open sliding door, thereby enabling
short distances and making it possible to keep an eye on the children. Given the small
dimensions, it was not possible to use furniture readily available in stores. As such,
Lihotzky designed particularly rational kitchen furniture (it was later mass produced) boa-
sting many practical details were intended to facilitate work and improve hygiene: from
the metal chutes for dry food and the oak wood drawer for flour (in which the wood’s
tannic acid was meant to ward off mealworms) and the fold-out ironing board to the Die Autorin des Beitrages Tanja Scheffler ist Bauhistorikerin, Fachautorin und Archi tektur -
bright blue, allegedly fly-resistant coloring. In 1927, life-size models of several of her kit- journalistin. Sie arbeitete nach einem Archiekturstudium mit anschließender berufs -
chen designs were showcased in the exhibition Die neue Wohnung und ihr Innenausbau praktischer Tätigkeit am Lehrstuhl für Baugeschichte der TU Dresden in Forschung und
(The new apartment and its fittings) staged by the Frankfurt Municipal Building Depart - Lehre. Seitdem untersucht sie vor allem die Planungs- und Baugeschichte des 20. Jahr -
ment with a view to convincing potential users, when assessing the kitchens, to allow hunderts sowie die Auswirkungen der unterschiedlichen gesellschaftlichen Rahmen -
themselves to be swayed by the latter’s expediency and technical refinements, rather than bedingungen und Brüche dieser Ära auf das Baugeschehen. Dazu hat sie bereits zahlrei-
their personal aesthetic taste. Intended for after-work housekeeping, the “kitchen for a che Artikel in Ausstellungskatalogen, Fachbüchern und -zeitschriften veröffentlicht.
household with no domestic help” for a small apartment with a sliding door to the living
room went down in history as the “Frankfurt Kitchen”. Indeed, within the space of just a
few years it was fitted in more than 10,000 apartments. At the same time, a broad-based Mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Herausgeber und des Ernst Wasmuth Verlages
movement to simplify housekeeping emerged, which also made the possible inclusion of wurden der gekürzte Textbeitrag und die Abbildungen entnommen aus:
women’s organizations in the planning process and the progressive image of the “New
Woman” a subject of discussion. This was a role which Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky embo-
died in an exemplary way: She was the first female architect to be employed by the Frau Architekt
Frankfurt Municipal Building Department, with her professional success and own lifestyle
(“We didn’t lunch at home. We had no children.”). In fact, she played the role right down Seit mehr als 100 Jahren:
to her bobbed haircut typical of the era. For this reason she was active in the women’s Frauen im Architekturberuf
movement and various professional organizations, attended international congresses
(CIAM, UIA), wrote articles and her memoirs. To this day, her “Erinnerungen aus dem
Widerstand 1938-1945”, of which there were several editions, as well as the “Frankfurt Frau Architekt
Kitchen” define the image of the architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky. The first exhibition Herausgeber: Mary Pepchinski, Christina Budde, Wolfgang
of her entire oeuvre was held in 1993 in Museum für Angewandte Kunst (MAK) in Vienna. Voigt, Peter Cachola Schmal – Deutsches Architekturmuseum,
The catalog published to accompany it, which even today can be considered to be a stan- Frankfurt/Main. Erschienen 2017 im Ernst Wasmuth Verlag,
dard reference for her output, contain an extensive list of her works. As off the 1980s she Tübingen, Berlin. Deutsch/Englisch. 113 Seiten. Hardcover.
received numerous architecture awards and honors. She died a few days before her 103rd Format: 24,5 x 30,5 cm. 48 Euro
birthday on January 18, 2000 in Vienna, and remains an important role for the genera - ISBN 978 3 8030 0829 9 (Buchhandelsausgabe)
tions of female architects that followed her. ISBN 978 3 8030 0828 2 (Museumsausgabe)

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