Margarethe Stonborough-Wittgenstein

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Margarethe Anna Maria Stonborough-Wittgenstein (also Margaret ) (born September 19, 1882 in Neuwaldegg , today City of Vienna ; † September 27, 1958 in Vienna) was the youngest daughter of the steel magnate Karl Wittgenstein , sister of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and the pianist Paul Wittgenstein and builder of the Wittgenstein house in Vienna.

Photo by Ferdinand Schmutzer (1903)
Gustav Klimt : Portrait of Margarethe Stonborough-Wittgenstein, 1905. Neue Pinakothek , Munich

Life

Margarethe Wittgenstein came as part of the Wittgenstein family from the assimilated (and converted ) Jewish upper class of Vienna. The daughter of an authoritarian patriarch who massively suppressed his sons in particular, developed into a versatile, unconventional and imposing personality (three of her brothers died by suicide, and Ludwig, the most famous, often suffered from depression). Margarethe dealt with mathematics, psychoanalysis and Karl Kraus , worked for a time in a chemical laboratory in Zurich, drew from nature, ran a salon and had a great influence on the younger Ludwig.

On January 7, 1905, Margarethe Wittgenstein married the New York factory owner Jerome Stonborough and moved with him to Berlin that same year. In the same year Gustav Klimt's famous portrait of the 23-year-old was also created, commissioned by the parents (after being sold from family property since 1963 in the Neue Pinakothek , Munich). In 1913 the couple bought the Villa Toscana in Gmunden , they separated in 1923, and in June 1938 Jerome died by suicide in the villa .

1926–1928 Margarethe Stonborough-Wittgenstein had her ascetic cubist city palace built in Vienna. The architect was Paul Engelmann , a student of Adolf Loos , but with the strong participation of Ludwig Wittgenstein. In 1940 she emigrated to the USA, returned to Austria after the Second World War and, after some effort, was largely restored to her property, which had been confiscated by the Nazi regime. Margarethe Stonborough-Wittgenstein was buried in the Stonborough family grave in the city cemetery in Gmunden.

literature

  • Margret Greiner: Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein. Grande Dame of Viennese Modernism. Novel biography. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-218-01110-5
  • Ursula Prokop: Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein. Builder, intellectual, patron. Böhlau, Vienna – Cologne – Weimar 2003, ISBN 3-205-77069-2 .
  • Tobias Natter, Gerbert Frodl (Ed.): Klimt and the women. Exhibition catalog, Dumont, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-8321-7271-8 .

Web links

Commons : Margarethe Stonborough-Wittgenstein  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexander Waugh: Das Haus Wittgenstein, story of an unusual family. / Introduction family tree, listed there as Jerome Hermann Steinberger / from 1900 name change to Stonborough (* December 7, 1873 New York - † June 15, 1938 Vienna), 2008, Fischer Verlag, ISBN 978-3-10-092220-5 .
  2. ↑ https://de.findagrave.com/memorial/158428489/margarete-stonborough , accessed on May 16, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Stonborough-Wittgenstein, Margarethe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stonborough-Wittgenstein, Margaret
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Building owner of the Wittgenstein house in Vienna
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 1958
Place of death Vienna