Josef Hoffmann

A prominent member of the Viennese Secession, he was born in Pirnitz-Mähren in 1870. At the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, he studied under Karl Hasenauer and Otto Wagner, and until 1937 he taught architecture at the Kunstgewerbeschule of the Österreichische Museum für Kunst und Industrie. In 1903, he founded the Wiener Werkstätte together with Kolo Moser. He developed his simple geometric forms out of the curvilinear language of European art nouveau. One of his most important works was the Stoclet Palace in Brussels (1905-1911). He developed the principles of the total work of art. He died in 1956.