Anna Plischke

Anna Plischke (formerly Lang, née Schwitzer; 1895–1983) was a landscape designer trained in Vienna, who practised in New Zealand. She introduced modernist ideas of design to the built environment and architectural practice.

Biography alt=Black and white line drawing of house floorplan, designed by E. A. and Anna Plischke Plischke's father was Jewish merchant Hugo Schwitzer, and her mother was Hedwig Nossal. In Vienna, where she grew up, she gained an arts degree. She trained in horticulture at the Rothschilds' garden and then went on to work in landscape gardening.

After her marriage to Ernst Plischke, the couple came to New Zealand as refugees in 1939 as she was under threat from the Gestapo due to her Jewish heritage. In New Zealand, they were classified as German under the Aliens Emergency regulations and only avoided being interred on Matiu Somes Island in Wellington Harbour because of her husband's status in his government job with the Housing Department. The 1947 publication Design and Living was about the Frankel House in Christchurch with Ernst's architecture and Anna's landscaping, which was an extension of the living space with a 'living terrace' off the living room. She designed approximately 15 gardens in New Zealand.

She died in Vienna in 1983.