Page - 12 - in Demolished Modified Endangered - Modelling Austrian Architecture Of The 20th Century

12 KABARETT FLEDERMAUS BY JOSEF HOFFMANN Year 1907 Status Demolished Material Paper Glue Scale 1:50 Model maker Barbara Gruber In 1907 Josef Hoffmann designed the Kabarett Fledermaus which was to be built at the corner Kärntnerstrasse and Johannesgasse in the city centre of Vienna. Josef Hoffmann was co-founder of the 1903 established furniture and luxury accessory company Wiener Werkstätte. The Wiener Werkstätte was also the owner of the Kabarett Fledermaus. The establishment was based in the basement of the building and was entered from Johannesgasse via stairs. Visitors passed through the marble covered entrance and arrived in the entrance hall. On a floor plan covering 440m², Josef Hoffmann placed an entrance area, an auditorium with a gallery, a stage, a backstage room, a restaurant kitchen and toilets.1 The entrance hall included a bar and a wardrobe. The floor was covered in black and white tiles. The walls and the bar were covered in 7000 coloured and ornamented tiles by the artists Bertold Löffler and Michael Powolny. The lower section of the main room was covered in dark grey marble, the rest was painted white. The floor of the main room was covered with a carpet. The Kabarett Fledermaus can be seen as a total work of art. The Wiener Werkstätte, under the leadership of Josef Hoffmann, not only planned the architecture, but also designed the furniture, the lights, the tableware, the posters as well as the invitation cards. In 1913 the Kabarett Fledermaus was sold by the Wiener Werkstätte due to financial problems.2 The model is made with the help of a sketch of the floor plan by Le Corbusier who visited the Kabarett Fledermaus in 1907. 1 Sekler, Eduard F. (1982): Josef Hoffmann. Das architektonische Werk. Monoggraphie und Werkverzeichnis. Salzburg, Wien: Residenz Verlag. 318-319. 2 Buhrs, Michael; Lesák, Barbara; Trabitsch, Thomas (Ed.) (2007): Kabarett Fledermaus 1907-1913: Ein Gesamtkunstwerk der Wiener Werkstätte, Literatur, Musik, Tanz. Wien: Christian Brandstätter Verlag. 51-84.