Ludwig Wittgenstein philosopher architect

His masterpiece in Vienna was a house for his sister Gretl. A magnificent obsession parallel to his brainy “Tractatus”.

Ludwig Wittgenstein, House for her sister Gretl, Wien, 1926-28

Between the end of the Habsburg Empire and the Anschluss in 1938, Ludwig and Hermine Wittgenstein designed and built a house in Vienna for their sister Gretl, using money that their father Karl had amassed as a monopolist of the Mittel-European iron and steel industry. (...)

Struggling to find a vocation worthy of his genius, Ludwig Wittgenstein worked as an elementary-school teacher in a remote rural mountain area and as a gardener at a monastery until he began designing the house for Gretl on Kundmanngasse in Vienna. The house with all its executional difficulties taught the philosopher more than philosophy allowed him to transmit. (...)

You can read the full article on the Novanta Anni issue, the supplement of Domus 1024, May 2018.

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