Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1898 Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria)

Died: 1989 London, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1936

Other name/s: Josef Berger, Joe Berger

Biography

Architect and designer, Joseph (Josef) Berger was born into a middle-class Jewish family in 1898 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria). He studied at the Technische Hochschule (Technical University of Vienna) in 1917–21, and attended the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) under Oskar Strnad, and Adolf Loos' Bauschule (school for architecture). In 1921, he founded an architectural office with former classmate Martin Ziegler and the following year, he married artist Margarete Hamerschlag; their son later described his parents as '[...] young modernists [who] spurned what they saw as stuffy Victorian protocol' (Wright 2008, p. 7). In 1923, Berger, together with his elder brother Arthur and his brother-in-law, journalist and applied artist Fritz Lampl, founded 'Bimini-Workshops' (specialising in the production of decorative glassware and famous for their delicate glass figurines), which would later be re-established in exile in London. The architectural office began to receive building commissions during this period of so-called 'Red Vienna', when the city, governed by the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria, launched its social housing scheme. Berger and Ziegler's designs were influenced by the designs and architectural theory of Adolf Loos, employing a rational architectural style with minimal ornamentation. Ziegler and Berger, with Otto Bauer, founded the Association of Young Austrian Architects in the mid-1920s.

Due to the increasingly difficult economic situation and political climate, Berger left Vienna for Palestine in 1934 with his wife, where he worked with local architect Tibor Schön. As plans to build a large hotel complex in Haifa failed, he immigrated to London in 1936. On his arrival, he founded a branch of the Berger & Ziegler office (Ziegler joined him in 1939). In 1937 Berger rebuilt the Maxwell House in Scotland and also designed the furniture (Pfolz 2007, p. 40). In exile Berger became a member of the Free German League of Culture (FGLC, a left-leaning cultural organisation established by German speaking refugees) and the Austrian Centre (AC), both in London, exhibiting drawings of buildings and interior decoration at the the FGLC Christmas Exhibition in 1939. In July 1940, he was interned as an 'enemy alien' at Mooragh Camp on the Isle of Man for six months, during which time he gave lectures on the construction of buildings and architectural planning. This was a difficult period for his wife and three-year-old son, Florian. The payments Margarete received from the Unemployment Assistance Board (UAB) had stopped, and she was surviving on a bare minimum of rations. Berger had to write to the UAB to request more urgent support. Furthermore, in 1940 a bombing raid destroyed both their home and the architectural office. As a result, Margarete and Florian were totally dependent on the help of friends, and Ziegler immigrated to the USA. Berger was eventually released in December 1940, following an appeal by prominent figures in British art and architecture, including Scottish artist, Sir Muirhead Bone (then a member of the War Artists’ Advisory Committee); his son, artist Stephen Bone; art critic Eric Newton; and Professor Charles H. Reilly, Fellow of the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA). Following his release, the family settled in Warwick Avenue, Maida Vale, where they supported other refugees fleeing Nazism, providing lodgings in their home and, along with artists, Stephen Bone and his wife, Mary Adshead, securing financial guarantors.

Berger gradually re-established himself as an architect and from 1945 gained some financial security following his employment by London County Council (LCC) under the direction of Sir Patrick Abercrombie. Berger was involved in various urban planning projects and the design and building of schools and housing, including Woodberry Down Primary School in Hackney, Wade Street Area Housing Scheme in Tower Hamlets and a nursery school in Camberwell, among others. This position enabled him to utilise progressive methods of planning: for Woodbury School, for instance, he asked teachers about their experiences of school routines and incorporated this knowledge in the new architectural designs. Berger also continued his role with Bimini in London, under its new name of Orplid Glass, which employed several émigrés, including renowned ceramicists, Lucie Rie and Hans Coper. In 1947 Berger became a naturalised British citizen. In 1950, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and his work was included posthumously in an exhibition held by RIBA in 1995 entitled A Different World: Émigré Architects in Britain 1928–1958. Berger retired from architecture in 1963 and died at Edenhall Hospice, London in 1989. RIBA collection holds a number of his designs for houses, furniture, synagogues in Israel, and gardens (including for his own house in Hampstead), as well as schemes he entered in architectural competitions. Berger’s son (who later changed his name to the more English-sounding, Raymond) became a television and theatre designer, working for the BBC and ITV, among other organisations; he has also remained active in promoting the creative legacies of both his parents.

Related books

Mel Wright, Beyond the Jiving: Margareta Berger-Hamerschlag 1902–1958 (London: Deptford Forum Publishing, 2008)
Veronika Pfolz, 'A Clan of Artists in Exile. From Austria to Britain', in Andrew Chandler, Katarzyna Stokłosa, Jutta Vinzent eds., Exile and Patronage: Cross-cultural Negotiations Beyond the Third Reich (Berlin, Münster and London: Global, 2007), pp. 33-44
Jutta Vinzent, 'List of Refugee Artists (Painters, Sculptors, and Graphic Artists) From Nazi Germany in Britain (1933–1945)', in Identity and Image: Refugee Artists from Nazi Germany in Britain (1933–1945) (Kromsdorf/Weimar: VDG Verlag, 2006) pp. 249-298
Charlotte Benton, A Different World: Émigré Architects in Britain 1928–1958 (London, RIBA Heinz Gallery, 1995)
'Berger Dies', Building Design, No. 951, 1 September 1989, p. 3

Public collections

RIBA collection

Related organisations

Association of Young Austrian Architects (co-founder)
Bimini-Workshops (co-founder)
Berger and Ziegler Architectural Office, Vienna (co-founder)
FGLC (exhibitor)
AC (exhibitor)
London County Council (architect)

Selected exhibitions

A Different World: Emigré Architects in Britain 1928–1958, RIBA Heinz Gallery (1995)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Joseph Berger]