The Tugendhat family did not enjoy their famous villa in Brno very much

Prague - The functionalist villa in Brno, which textile entrepreneur Fritz Tugendhat had built in the late 1920s, is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, where it was added in 2001 as the eleventh Czech monument. The unique house, designed by the famous architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and which began construction 95 years ago in June 1929, is often referred to as a building that established new standards for modern living and is one of the fundamental works of world modern architecture. However, its original owners did not enjoy the villa for long; in the late 1930s, they had to flee from the Nazis.

Fritz Tugendhat initially wanted to study medicine, but in the end, he also became involved in the family textile business. As a not particularly gifted businessman, he was more interested in the technical aspects of things and fabric design. In 1928, he married Greta, née Löw-Beer, in Berlin, who came from an even wealthier Jewish entrepreneurial family involved in sugar production and distilling. Originally, she also owned the land where the young couple decided to build a modern house.

The Tugendhats approached the renowned German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, whose work art lover Greta Tugendhat had become familiar with while living in Berlin. "I really wished to have a modern spacious house with clear and simple shapes. My husband was terrified of rooms full of figurines and doilies, as he knew from his childhood," she said. After touring the plot with its beautiful view of Brno, the architect accepted the commission, resulting in a unique building, Mies's most significant pre-war work.

The Tugendhats moved into the villa in 1930 with their sons Ernest and Herbert and Hanna, Greta’s daughter from her first marriage. However, they did not have long to enjoy their new home equipped with the most modern technologies of the time; after eight years, they had to leave the country in the face of the growing Nazi threat. The family traveled through Switzerland and reached Venezuela in 1941, where daughters Ruth and Daniela were born. The villa was initially confiscated by the Gestapo, and after the war, it was briefly occupied by Soviet soldiers before being nationalized.

It served as a dance school, and rehabilitation gymnastics for children was conducted there. Only in 1981 did the building undergo its first renovations and thus was prepared for a historical moment - in 1992, a treaty on the division of Czechoslovakia was signed here. Since 2001, it has been included on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and between 2010 and 2012 it underwent a sensitive reconstruction. Fritz Tugendhat, who died in 1958 in Switzerland, never visited it again, while Greta was here twice in the late 1960s.