It is with great sadness that we have received the news from the Tugendhat family that Professor Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat has left us.
The youngest daughter of Greta and Fritz Tugendhat was born on August 2, 1946 in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, where her parents were forced to emigrate to escape the Nazi regime. Daniela studied art history and classical archaeology at the universities of Bern and Vienna. In 1975, she graduated with Professor Otto Pöcht in Vienna with a thesis on the historical interpretation of the principles of painting layout by the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch. After her habilitation at the University of Oldenburg in 1993, she subsequently began working with the University of Vienna in 1994 and also became a permanent professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
One of the main themes of her extensive teaching, lecturing and publishing activities was the question of gender and feminism in the history of art. It was for this work that she was awarded the prestigious Austrian Gabriela Possaner State Prize in 2009.
Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat’s contribution to the restoration of Villa Tugendhat was invaluable. It was the youngest daughter Daniela who accompanied her mother Greta to Brno in 1969, when she had the opportunity to visit the family villa for the first time. At the same time, she listened to her mother’s seminal lecture on the villa, the culmination of an exhibition of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s work at the Brno House of Arts. Together with her husband Ivo Hammer-Tugendhat, she became the main spokesperson for the Tugendhat family on the issues of its protection and future use, and actively participated in the restoration process. The topic of Villa Tugendhat has been the subject of numerous publications, lectures and articles by Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat. Another of the many awards was the 2015 Brno City Prize in the category of international cooperation.
“The idea that we live forever is terrifying to me. I think that knowing that we are given life, but not knowing how long it will last, gives us the chance to live it as intensely as possible.”
Interview for Der Standard, 18 May 2024