Ernst Wiesner

21 January 1890, Malacky, Austria-Hungary (modern-day Slovakia) – 15 July 1971, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Ernst Wiesner (also known as Arnošt Wiesner) grew up in Brno, where he also graduated from grammar school and an industrial school. He continued his studies at a technical school in Vienna, as well as the local Academy of Fine Arts, in Friedrich Ohmann’s atelier. After the First World War, he returned to Brno and began working as an independent architect. In 1939, he emigrated to Great Britain, where he eventually settled. In the late 1940s, he became a lecturer at the School of Architecture in Oxford. From the 1950s, he worked at the University of Liverpool. In 1969, he was awarded the title of honorary doctor of the University of Jan Evangelista Purkyně in Brno (now Masaryk University).

Wiesner’s work in the interwar period is characterised by a restrained modern expression, which could be described as purism with Neoclassical elements and a certain monumentality in case of public buildings. On the other hand, his apartment buildings are pleasantly habitable. His most important works in Brno include the city crematorium (1925), the Moravian Land Insurance Company and the Moravia Palace (1929), the Union Bank (now the Czech Radio) and the Stiassny villa (1928–1929). He designed the Moravian Bank building (Liberty Square, Brno) with Bohuslav Fuchs. His works abroad include the noteworthy collection of schools of Saint Nicholas (Liverpool, United Kingdom).