Wolfgang Hoffmann

Wolfgang Hoffmann (October 21, 1900 – February 16, 1969) was an Austrian-American architect and designer active in the American modernism movement between 1926 and 1942. His reputation was overshadowed by that of his father, the architect and designer Josef Hoffmann, and ex-wife, Josefine Pola Weinbach Hoffmann, better known as Pola Stout.

Early life and education Hoffmann was born in Klosterneuburg, near Vienna, Austria in 1900, the son of the architect, pedagogue and Wiener Werkstatte co-founder Josef Hoffmann. Following eight years at the Realschule, he spent another three years at a special architectural school. Graduating from the Kunstgewerbeschule (University of Applied Arts, Vienna), where he studied under Oskar Strnad and Josef Frank, he spent a year-and-a-half gaining practical experience in an architect's office before joining his father's firm for two years.

Marriage and emigration to U.S. In 1925 the architect Joseph Urban, working in New York, wrote to Josef Hoffmann asking him to recommend an assistant. Hoffmann recommended his son Wolfgang, and Urban sent him a first-class passage ticket to join him in the United States.

While studying at the Kunstgewerbeschule Wolfgang met his father's student Pola Weinbach, who had come from Stryi to study in Vienna. Following Urban's invitation to America, Wolfgang and Pola were married in Vienna. Wolfgang converted his first class ticket to two steerage tickets, and the two set sail. The couple arrived in New York in December 1925. They were among those who established the American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen (AUDAC), the most ambitious professional design group of the era. The Hoffmanns also collaborated with Lucian Bernhard's Contempora gallery and decorating service.

In 1931, Wolfgang's work was exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern Art. The same year he and Kem Weber organized an exhibition titled Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts at the Brooklyn Museum, a show that included work by both Wolfgang and Pola Hoffmann. Pola married writer Rex Stout and moved to Danbury, Connecticut.

In 1934, Donald Deskey asked Hoffmann to design birchwood furniture for Helena Rubinstein's Park Avenue apartment.

Hoffmann left the company in 1942 when it converted to war production. He became a professional photographer in Chicago. The business continued for nearly 25 years, with Hoffmann working as a commercial and industrial photographer and as staff photographer for Community Hospital in Geneva.

Death Though ailing for several months, Hoffmann continued working almost up until his death at Community Hospital in Geneva, Illinois, on February 16, 1969. A requiem mass was said for him at St. Peter's Catholic Church on February 24.