Wilhelm Stiassny was born in Bratislava in 1842 into a Jewish family from Moravia. When he was still a child, the family moved to Vienna. From 1857 to 1861, he studied architecture at Vienna University of Technology. To further his education, he continued his studies at the Vienna Academy, graduating in 1866. His lecturers were prominent Viennese architects Eduard van der Nüll, August Sicard von Sicardsburg, Karl Roesner, and Friedrich von Schmidt. After graduation, he started working as a freelance architect in Vienna. He was interested in the issue of housing for the lower classes but, paradoxically, he mainly designed luxury tenement houses for the bourgeoisie and residences for the most prominent Jewish families in Austria. He was very active in Vienna not only as an architect, but also as a politician – he was a member of the Vienna City Council and actively supported Zionism. He was instrumental in the founding of the Jewish Museum in Vienna, and towards the end of his life, he even laid the foundations for the construction of a residential quarter in the then newly-founded Tel Aviv, the construction of which, however, did not begin until after his death.
In addition to residential homes, Stiassny mainly designed synagogues and Jewish ceremonial halls throughout the entire territory of the then monarchy, especially in Bohemia and Moravia. Synagogues in Čáslav, Jablonec nad Nisou, and Prague and ceremonial halls in cemeteries in Kojetín and Jihlava were built according to his designs. As in the case of the Viennese residential buildings built in the spirit of the late Neo-Renaissance or Neo-Baroque, he opted for historicist architecture for most of the Jewish shrines, too. In addition to Neo-Romanesque architectural elements, he also used Moorish motifs to express the oriental origins of Judaism. Most of Stiassny's synagogues and ceremonial halls, including the one in Jihlava, were destroyed by the Nazis. The Jerusalem Synagogue in Prague, whose ornate façade features Art Nouveau elements, still serves as one of the few examples of the magnificence of his oriental architecture.
TŠ
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architect
Wilhelm Stiassny -
Date of birth
15. 10. 1842 Bratislava -
Date of death
11. 7. 1910 Bad Ischl
Selection of further buildings
Rothschildspital, Währinger Gürtel 97, Vienna, Austria, 1870–1874 (demolished 1955)
Schwab Palace, Weihburggasse 30, Vienna, Austria, 1871–1872
Königswarter tenement houses, Rathausstraße 13–17, Vienna, Austria, 1881–1882
Synagogue, Malacky, Slovakia, 1886–1887
Synagogue, Jablonec nad Nisou, 1891–1892 (destroyed 1938)
Vinohrady Synagogue, Sázavská 830, Praha 2, 1894–1896 (destroyed 1945, remains pulled down 1951)
Synagogue, Masarykova 111, Čáslav, 1899–1900
Jubilee Hospital of the Emperor Franz Joseph I for Israelites (Jubilejní nemocnice císaře Františka Josefa I. pro Izraelity), Bezručova 10, no.1098, Karlovy Vary, 1899–1903
Ceremonial Hall, U Cvičiště, Jewish Cemetery, Jihlava, 1903–1904 (demolished 1939)
Jerusalem (Jubilee) Synagogue (Jeruzalémská (Jubilejní) synagoga), Jeruzalémská 7, Praha 1, 1904–1906
Schwab Palace, Weihburggasse 30, Vienna, Austria, 1871–1872
Königswarter tenement houses, Rathausstraße 13–17, Vienna, Austria, 1881–1882
Synagogue, Malacky, Slovakia, 1886–1887
Synagogue, Jablonec nad Nisou, 1891–1892 (destroyed 1938)
Vinohrady Synagogue, Sázavská 830, Praha 2, 1894–1896 (destroyed 1945, remains pulled down 1951)
Synagogue, Masarykova 111, Čáslav, 1899–1900
Jubilee Hospital of the Emperor Franz Joseph I for Israelites (Jubilejní nemocnice císaře Františka Josefa I. pro Izraelity), Bezručova 10, no.1098, Karlovy Vary, 1899–1903
Ceremonial Hall, U Cvičiště, Jewish Cemetery, Jihlava, 1903–1904 (demolished 1939)
Jerusalem (Jubilee) Synagogue (Jeruzalémská (Jubilejní) synagoga), Jeruzalémská 7, Praha 1, 1904–1906
Literature and other sources
Literatura:
Zdeněk Lukeš, Splátka dluhu: Praha a její německy hovořící architekti 1900–1938, Praha 2002, s. 186–187.
Ostatní zdroje:
Ursula Prokop, heslo Wilhelm Stiassny, in: Architektenlexikon Wien, http://www.architektenlexikon.at/de/625.htm, vyhledáno 5. 1. 2023.
Satoko Tanaka, Wilhelm Stiassny (1842–1910): Synagogenbau, Orientalismus und jüdische Identität, nepublikovaná disertační práce, Universität Wien, Vídeň 2009.
Pavel Zatloukal, Wilhelm Stiassny, https://www.zob.cz/vzdelavani/osobnosti/stiassny-wilhelm/, vyhledáno 5. 1. 2023.
