Ernst Anton Plischke

The architect Ernst Anton Plischke was born in 1903 at Klosterneuburg near Vienna. He studied in the architectural class of Oskar Strnad at the Kunstgewerbeschule (now the University of Applied Arts) where, at the time, Josef Hoffmann was also teaching. Later, Plischke became a student of Peter Behrens at the Akademie der bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts) in Vienna. After graduating in 1926, he worked in Behrens' private studio in Vienna. Le Corbusier, among others, had worked earlier in the studio of Peter Behrens in Berlin as had Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Afterwards, Plischke worked in the studio of Josef Frank, a leading architect of the Modern Movement in Austria and one of the founders of CIAM at the La Sarraz meeting of 1928. As a result of the poor economic situation in Europe in the late 1920s, Plischke travelled with William Muschenheim to the United States where they worked together in New York. Later Plischke worked independently in the studio of Elias Kahn 1. Going back at the end of 1929 he visited Le Corbusier in Paris as he did several times later on. By the 1 st of January, 1930, Plischke was again in Vienna where Josef Frank immediately asked him to take part in the Vienna Werkbundsiedlung, which was being planned at that time. Most of the progressive Viennese architects of the day were involved in this project. The year 1930, in which he began his private practice, was a milestone in Plischke's career. He received several commissions, one of which was the project for the Arbeitsamt Liesing. The building quickly achieved far-reaching recognition. National and international publications - Architectural Forum, New York, and Architecture d'aujourdhui for instance reviewed it in 1932. It was also mentioned in 1936 by Alberto Sartoris in "Gli elementi dell'architettura funzionale". The Arbeitsamt Liesing brought two further commissions: the Arbeitsamt in Gmünd, built in 1931, and a project for Amstetten. Because of the changing political situation in Austria, Plischke emigrated to New Zealand where he worked in several different positions. In 1963 he returned to Vienna to become a professor at the Akademie der bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts). He retired in the early 1970s and died in 1992.