May 16, 1903
in Brno, Czechia
Dec. 10, 1970
in St. Gallen, Switzerland
Grete Tugendhat interrupted her studies of economics in Vienna for her first marriage. She spent the following six years in Germany, where she met the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The second wedding with Fritz Tugendhat made Grete Tugendhat, ne Löw-Beer, famous. Returning to Brno, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe built their new house. The Nazis in Germany started to rule in 1933. From this time Grete Tugendhat helped emigrants from Germany in Czechoslovakia. At the end the Tugendhat family had also to emigrate because of the German Nazis occupied the Czech border areas in 1938. First they went to Switzerland and than to Venezuela. During the liberal period of Prague Spring in 1968 she returned to Brno and even talked about the villa and the interwar time in 1969. One year later she died in a car accident in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Sources
Buildings
Brno, Czechia
Villa Tugendhat