Leopold Krakauer

Leopold Krakauer (; March 1890 – December 1954) was an architect and a painter. He was one of the most prominent architects who worked in Mandatory Palestine in the mid-1920s. He was also a painter who presented drawings and paintings at exhibitions in Israel and all over the world. Krakauer lived in Israel from 1924 until his death.

Biography Leopold Krakauer was born in Vienna, the capital of Austria on March 30, 1890. His father, Joseph-Moses, was a merchant in iron products. He studied at the Imperial and Royal High School in Vienna and between 1907 and 1912 he studied engineering and architecture at the Higher Technical School and then at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Until the First World War he worked in a Viennese planning office and as a draftsman for the architect Karl Seidel. During the war he served in a technical unit on the Italian front. In 1920-1921 he participated in the planning of the parliament building in Belgrade. In 1919, he exhibited some of his paintings at an exhibition in Vienna, as part of the avant-garde artist group "Bund der Geisitig Tätigen", where he met the painter Greta Wolff, who also exhibited at the same exhibition and as part of the group's activities, and they married. In 1924, the two immigrated to Israel, at the time Mandatory Palestine, together with their daughter Trude Dotan, and Krakouer began working in the planning office of Alexander Baerwald in Haifa. After that, he moved to Jerusalem and opened a private office (among others, the architects Shrega Friedrich Rohtin and Zev Weltsch worked in his office). He often designed private homes, both within Jerusalem and outside, and was one of the prominent planners in the workers settlement movement, where he designed communal dining rooms and other public buildings. He was also engaged in planning outline plans. He was one of the first architects to bring the modern trend in architecture to the Land of Israel, a trend that deliberately avoided decorative elements and strove for maximum functionality. He was particularly influenced by the architect Adolf Loos, who was also a visitor to his home in Vienna.

In 1948, he was appointed as a member of the Committee of the Flag Symbol, under the Provisional State Council. Krakauer helped choose the symbol of Israel.

Krakauer died on December 19, 1954, and was buried on the Mount of Comfort (Har HaMenuchot) in Jerusalem. A month after his death, an exhibition was held in his memory in Bezalel. In 1978, the Stamp Service issued a stamp with one of his thorn drawings. Another stamp, depicting the dining room at Kibbutz Tel Yosef, was issued by the Stamp Service in 1990. Krakauer is survived by his wife, the painter Greta Wolf, and his daughter, the archaeologist Prof. Trude Dotan. His grandchildren are the singer and writer Danny Dotan and the artist Uri Dotan. According to the philosopher Martin Buber "Karkauer's loneliness met the loneliness of this landscape; and under the influence of this, his own loneliness became another" while the curator and the art critic Yona Fischer described him as someone who "emphasizes the volumetric structure of the landscape, on the one hand, and his dramatic nature, on the other hand".

Architectural Work His most famous architectural works include: "Bunam House", "The Boksboim" and "Kisher House" in the Rehavia neighbourhood of Jerusalem Beit Ussishkin museum on Kibbutz Dan Dining rooms in Beit Alfa, Tel Yosef 1933 Hotel Talpash in Haifa