HOFFMAN: JOSEF HOFFMAN: AUTOBIOGRAPHY

As co-founder of the Secession, theWienerWerkstätte, and the ÖsterreichischerWerkbund, Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956) had a decisive influence onmodern Viennese architecture and design. Around 1948 Hoffmann wrote his autobiography, in which he recapitulated his life and career. Fromhis childhood with his family in his home town of Brtnice, his education in Brünn and Vienna, to the founding of the Secession and theWiener Werkstätte in the late twenties, the text covers all of the important events in his life.The reader is presented with absorbing information about Hoffmann's personal relationships to his homeland, to fellow artists OttoWagner, KolomanMoser, and Dagobert Peche, and to his patrons, such as the Wittgenstein, Stoclet, Primavesi,and Mauthner families. As the only comprehensive, authentic source concerning the life and work of Josef Hoffmann, his descriptions are of enormous significance and the starting point for any other work on Hoffmann's oeuvre.Now with extensive commentary, his autobiography is once again available to a wider public.