Otto Wagner: Architect of Modern Life - Exhibition at Tchoban Foundation
31.1. - 17.5.2026
At first glance, there may not seem to be many connections on Wagner's exhibition in Berlin, as most of Wagner's realizations are located in Vienna, where his archive is also carefully maintained. However, the founder of modern architecture in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy shares several formative experiences with the former capital of the Prussian kingdom. At the age of eighteen, he left in 1859 on the recommendation of Theophilus Hansen to study at the Berlin Building Academy (Schinkelsche Bauakademie) with Carl Ferdinand Busse, who was directly a student of Schinkel. During his two-year stay in Berlin, he had the opportunity not only to thoroughly familiarize himself with Schinkel's work firsthand, but also to get acquainted with the publication Collection of Architectural Designs (Sammlung architektonischer Entwürfe, 1919-40), which later served as a model for his own publications Some Sketches, Projects and Completed Buildings (Einige Skizze, Projekte und ausgeführte Bauwerke, 1889).
Upon returning to Vienna, Wagner continued his architecture studies at the Academy in the master workshop of Eduard van der Nüll and August Sicard von Sicardsburg. Even before graduation, he began collecting his first work experiences in the studio of Heinrich Förster, who, although overshadowed by his more famous father, older brother, and brother-in-law, opened the door for him into a significant Viennese architectural family. Wagner returned to Berlin in later years when he participated in competitions for the construction of the cathedral (1867) and the building of the Reichstag (1882). Although he went unrecognized in both cases, Wagner demonstrated through his projects the ability to present himself with a clear architectural language and to measure himself against the greatest personalities of contemporary European architecture.
On the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of Wagner's death (2018), two exhibitions were prepared in Vienna, which extensively presented not only his historical work but also its influence on successors and its perception by the current generation. The Museum of Applied Arts organized an exhibition Post-Otto Wagner, and the City Museum presented an exhibition with the brief title Otto Wagner, where they showcased about five hundred exhibits and accompanied it with a more than five hundred-page catalog (a reissue is planned for this year), thus setting a high bar for future curators.
The preparations for the Berlin exhibition at the Tchoban Foundation were undertaken by Andreas Nierhaus, who was a co-author eight years ago of the successful Vienna exhibition Otto Wagner and of the extensive catalog. The spring exhibition Otto Wagner - Architect of Modern Life (Otto Wagner – Architekt des modernes Lebens) at the Museum of Architectural Drawing aimed not only to remind visitors of Wagner’s close relationship with Berlin but also to present Wagner as a person devoted to “modern life”. His architectural language was not defined by historical styles, but by the needs of contemporary society, which was experiencing rapid development, reflected in the way cities and their infrastructure were built. The intricately detailed drawings were an effective tool in promoting modern ideas. Today, these drawings, which sometimes took weeks to create, are rightly regarded as masterpieces. Although Wagner was a brilliant draftsman, only a small number of his drawings have survived. Most of the drawings came from office staff, so upon further study, you can recognize different styles. At the time Wagner was designing the Vienna urban railway, his studio employed up to seventy people, so alongside the main painters Rudolf Bernt and Karl Ederer, a number of Wagner's students from the Vienna Academy and later successful architects such as J.M. Olbrich, O. Schönthal, H. Gessner, or J. Plečnik contributed to the drawings.
The exhibition is divided into six chapters, each dedicated to a key theme of Wagner's work, and showcases some of the most significant drawings. The chapters range from lesser-known early historicist works, through grand Art Nouveau projects, to radical ornament-free buildings from his later period, which solidified Wagner's position in the history of modern architecture.
The exhibition was created in collaboration with the Museum of the City of Vienna, which provided most of the drawings from its archive, but it was also possible to obtain originals from private collections and several pieces directly from the Tchoban Foundation. No matter how good a monograph may be, it cannot convey a view of the originals, whose format sometimes exceeds one meter, and the smallest details executed with fine ink drawings (in combination with other techniques including gilding) help draw you into the overall scene.
The Berlin exhibition takes us back more than a hundred years to a time when there were no computers or photocopiers. Although lithography was already known and simple printing allowed for the dissemination of copies, architectural practice still largely relied on manual work perfected over decades to absolute perfection.
More than sixty years have passed since the last Wagner exhibition in Germany. Some drawings were presented in Berlin for the very first time. We hope that we won’t have to wait so long for the next exhibition related to this pioneer of modern architecture in Central Europe.
More information >
Upon returning to Vienna, Wagner continued his architecture studies at the Academy in the master workshop of Eduard van der Nüll and August Sicard von Sicardsburg. Even before graduation, he began collecting his first work experiences in the studio of Heinrich Förster, who, although overshadowed by his more famous father, older brother, and brother-in-law, opened the door for him into a significant Viennese architectural family. Wagner returned to Berlin in later years when he participated in competitions for the construction of the cathedral (1867) and the building of the Reichstag (1882). Although he went unrecognized in both cases, Wagner demonstrated through his projects the ability to present himself with a clear architectural language and to measure himself against the greatest personalities of contemporary European architecture.
On the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of Wagner's death (2018), two exhibitions were prepared in Vienna, which extensively presented not only his historical work but also its influence on successors and its perception by the current generation. The Museum of Applied Arts organized an exhibition Post-Otto Wagner, and the City Museum presented an exhibition with the brief title Otto Wagner, where they showcased about five hundred exhibits and accompanied it with a more than five hundred-page catalog (a reissue is planned for this year), thus setting a high bar for future curators.
The preparations for the Berlin exhibition at the Tchoban Foundation were undertaken by Andreas Nierhaus, who was a co-author eight years ago of the successful Vienna exhibition Otto Wagner and of the extensive catalog. The spring exhibition Otto Wagner - Architect of Modern Life (Otto Wagner – Architekt des modernes Lebens) at the Museum of Architectural Drawing aimed not only to remind visitors of Wagner’s close relationship with Berlin but also to present Wagner as a person devoted to “modern life”. His architectural language was not defined by historical styles, but by the needs of contemporary society, which was experiencing rapid development, reflected in the way cities and their infrastructure were built. The intricately detailed drawings were an effective tool in promoting modern ideas. Today, these drawings, which sometimes took weeks to create, are rightly regarded as masterpieces. Although Wagner was a brilliant draftsman, only a small number of his drawings have survived. Most of the drawings came from office staff, so upon further study, you can recognize different styles. At the time Wagner was designing the Vienna urban railway, his studio employed up to seventy people, so alongside the main painters Rudolf Bernt and Karl Ederer, a number of Wagner's students from the Vienna Academy and later successful architects such as J.M. Olbrich, O. Schönthal, H. Gessner, or J. Plečnik contributed to the drawings.
The exhibition is divided into six chapters, each dedicated to a key theme of Wagner's work, and showcases some of the most significant drawings. The chapters range from lesser-known early historicist works, through grand Art Nouveau projects, to radical ornament-free buildings from his later period, which solidified Wagner's position in the history of modern architecture.
The exhibition was created in collaboration with the Museum of the City of Vienna, which provided most of the drawings from its archive, but it was also possible to obtain originals from private collections and several pieces directly from the Tchoban Foundation. No matter how good a monograph may be, it cannot convey a view of the originals, whose format sometimes exceeds one meter, and the smallest details executed with fine ink drawings (in combination with other techniques including gilding) help draw you into the overall scene.
The Berlin exhibition takes us back more than a hundred years to a time when there were no computers or photocopiers. Although lithography was already known and simple printing allowed for the dissemination of copies, architectural practice still largely relied on manual work perfected over decades to absolute perfection.
More than sixty years have passed since the last Wagner exhibition in Germany. Some drawings were presented in Berlin for the very first time. We hope that we won’t have to wait so long for the next exhibition related to this pioneer of modern architecture in Central Europe.
More information >
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