The house in Innsbruck where Holzmeister lived from 1919 to 1924 and where he had his studio belonged to his father-in-law. The Holzmeisters' apartment in Vienna, on the other hand, belonged to the Count Otto Sarnthein. The couple had two children: Guido, who was born in Vienna at the end of 1914, and Judith, who was born in Innsbruck in 1920. In 1932 Holzmeister met his future second wife, the photographer Gunda Lexer, who had come to the Hahnenkamm as a friend of the architect Ernst Peterson and his wife Lisa. In 1939 Gunda Lexer gave birth to a daughter, Barbara, in Athens. Although Holzmeister separated from Judith and married Gunda, he always maintained a good relationship with his first family. In 1962, the house in Salzburg where Holzmeister would live until his death was completed. At the beginning of the 1970s he also moved his studio from Vienna to Salzburg. Although at 1800 m. it is exposed to the frost and storms of the mountains, Holzmeister's house is closely connected to the outside world. For the professor who was active all over the world, the refuge in the mountains was easily and comfortably reachable by the international express trains stopping in Kitzbühel and the Hahnenkamm funicular railway, inaugurated in 1928. The house in the mountains, where Christmas was celebrated for the first time in 1930, was the centre for Holzmeister's relations with his family and friends. He was an extremely communicative and mobile person, and it was the ideal place for him to receive guests, to socialise with his family and friends, to reflect and to work in peace. Some parts of the interior fixtures (ceiling and wall lining with windows and built-in furniture) had already been produced by a Viennese carpenter in 1929, and were exhibited at the Christmas exhibition at the Vienna Künstlerhaus as "Ski house for the Hahnenkamm". It was therefore published in its original version even before its completion. The house in the mountains was at its busiest in the 1930s up to Holzmeister's emigration in 1938. A large number of friends, politicians and artists signed in the guest book by making drawings and writing poems: among them was his friend and co-worker Max Fellerer, the architect Herbert Eichholzer, the painter Alfons Walde, the ceramic artist Gudrun Baudisch, the Swiss sculptor Walter Rupp, the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Guido Schmid, and many more. The house was empty during the Nazi period. In November 1947 Holzmeister travelled to Austria again and visited the house in the mountains. "It was built in 1930 at an altitude of 1800 m. At this altitude fully, exposed to the storms, it was built in accordance with the sun, the snow, the weather, with the construction and material. Masonry was used sparingly due to high costs and the basement - not really habitable due to snowdrifts - was retracted, creating a projection of the wooden house. This resulted in a strange, most agreeable phenomenon. Due to the wind from the retracted basement blowing around the house, the snow never reached it, but created a nearly circular snow cornice." (Holzmeister, 1937) From the west the house looked like a tower; today there is a mountain forest, and the view is therefore less striking than it is in the often published photographs taken by Julius Scherb in the 1930s. The house was fitted from the beginning with modern living comforts: two bathrooms, electric current, a telephone line, and an intelligent heating system with a stove situated at the centre of the house. For Holzmeister the Tyrolean farmhouse parlour represented the ideal of homeliness, although this was not true for his wife Judith (who was acquainted with Gio Ponti). Judith Holzmeister had an influence on the design process: a kitchen separated from the living room and an elegant fitting for her room on the first floor were made according to her wishes. The house is of a brilliant conception, with a unique economy of space, a fascinating variable sequence of rooms that are precisely defined in function yet flexible in use, a climatic zoning, going from the heatable living room to the covered veranda and to the terrace oriented towards the sun. The veranda, with large windows that can be lowered, was a working area. Sliding walls enabled the connection and the division of the 37 m² living area into three areas. There is sleeping room for five people; for more guests there is space in the living area and in the attic. The high artistic, historical and cultural value of the house is demonstrated by the fact that it has been listed, with its original interior, since 1994. The Austrian Federal Authority for the Preservation of Historic Monuments draws the following conclusion: "Although formally there are no historical references with regard to form, the style of construction is related to landscape and tradition (retracted concrete socle, wooden shingling). From a historical point of view the house represents a milestone in modern Alpine architecture, where functional room planning and closeness to nature are combined with modified elements of local building tradition." The house corresponded to Holzmeister's personal rhythm of life. His whole life was characterised by intensive work, friends, family, students, and parties, and all this came together remarkably in the house in the mountains. < BACK
Georg Rigele