The Archive Iris Meder in Vienna, Austria

Literary Descriptions

Iris studied art history and literature at the University of Stuttgart and the University of Vienna. Her immersion in literature gave rise to important questions. What makes a story or a description compelling and vivid? How do authors make characters come to life? Another passage in Hesse’s Beneath the Wheel―one of the many books in her library―takes place in a Cistercian monastery near Iris’s childhood home. She could thus compare Hesse’s literary descriptions of serene beauty with the actual site:

‘The large Cistercian monastery of Maulbronn is situated in the northwest of the province among wooded hills and small tranquil lakes. Extensive, solidly constructed and well preserved, the handsome old buildings provide an attractive abode―they are spectacular both inside and out, and over the centuries they have formed a whole with their beautiful, calm, green environs.

If you want to visit the monastery itself, you step through a picturesque gate in the high wall onto a broad and peaceful square. A fountain with running water is at its center, and there are old, solemn trees. At both sides stand rows of solid stone houses and in the background is the front of the main church with a large Romanesque porch, called “The Paradise,” of incomparable gracefulness and enchanting beauty. On the mighty roof of the church you can see a tower perched so absurdly small and pointed like a needle that it seems unbelievable it can bear the weight of the bell. The transept, itself a beautiful piece of workmanship, contains as its most precious gem an exquisite wall-chapel. The monks’ refectory with its noble vigorous ribbed vaulting, the oratory, parlor, lay refectory, abbot’s house and two churches together form a compact series of buildings. Picturesque walls, bow windows, gardens, a mill and living quarters are like a decorous wreath around the sturdy and ancient buildings. The broad square lies calm and empty and, in its repose, plays with the shadows of the surrounding trees. Only between noon and one o’clock does a fleeting semblance of life pass over it. At that time a group of young people step out of the monastery and, losing themselves in that wide expanse, introduce movement, shouts, conversations, laughter, perhaps a little ball-playing, only to disappear again at the end of that hour behind the wall without leaving a trace.’ ^[2]

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Refectory of the Maulbronn monastery, Germany, 2019 (Courtesy: Martin Feiersinger)

Another recurring theme in Iris’s work―originating perhaps in a heightened sensitivity, from an early age, to her surroundings―was the examination of various manifestations of modern architecture. Her dissertation focused on Vienna, addressing semiotics in the work of Adolf Loos, Josef Frank, and Oskar Strnad, but she also became consumed with the modern architecture of Yugoslavia. Perhaps not surprisingly, over the years she found numerous links between the modern architecture of the two locales. ^[3]

Interconnectedness

Except for a brief stint at Vienna’s University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Iris worked as an independent scholar. Keenly aware of the importance of networks, she was a member of several nonprofit organizations and made considerable efforts to connect with like-minded colleagues throughout Europe and in North America.

In 2002, Iris Meder joined the board of the Vienna-based Österreichische Gesellschaft für Architektur (Austrian Society for Architecture, ÖGFA), a nonprofit organization established in 1965 that fosters interdisciplinary discourse about the built environment and has always maintained a critical stance. The ÖGFA also has forged strong connections to Austria’s neighbors, particularly those to its north, east, and south. Iris and the ÖGFA were an ideal match. Whether guiding visitors to key works of architecture, leading study trips, or moderating a panel discussion, she was always in her element. She flourished by drawing on her vast knowledge of art and architecture as well as her scholarly network. From 2002 to 2018, Iris was involved in the conceptualization of the Society’s programmes. She also cultivated relationships with the organization’s founding generation. In 2017, when the board decided to name five new honorary members, she immediately suggested the appropriate accompanying gift: a work by the Austrian artist Maria Biljan-Bilger (1912–1997), one of the ÖGFA’s founding members. Each of the new honorary members―Friedrich Achleitner, Felix Orsini-Rosenberg, Hans Puchhammer, Margherita Spiluttini, and Gunther Wawrik―had known Biljan-Bilger well. Choosing a drawing from the artist’s collection necessitated a trip to the private museum dedicated to her work in Sommerein, a village some 40 kilometres southeast of Vienna―an example that shows how anyone graced with the good fortune to become acquainted with Iris would invariably be encouraged to share in her passion for travelling. ^[4]

Biographical portraits played an important―and fortuitous―role in Iris’s research. In one project, she and architect Judith Eiblmayr teamed up to document the origins of Vienna’s first high-rise building and to research biographies of its early residents. The building, known as the Hochhaus Herrengasse, was completed in 1932. ^[5] While searching for photographs of these residents to serve as illustrations in the book, Iris noticed that the magazine Die Bühne (The Stage) was among the most important sources―and that many of the magazine’s photographs were credited to women photographers.

This realization ultimately led to the 2012 exhibition ‘Vienna’s Shooting Girls’ at the Jewish Museum Vienna, a project Iris co-curated with the art historian Andrea Winklbauer. Photography was an activity that women―particularly Jewish women―took up at a relatively early point in time. The members of the nascent Jewish middle class saw the advantages of education for their sons and daughters alike and, wanting them to take part in society, viewed cultural endeavours as a promising possibility for their children. When asked about their working relationship, Andrea Winklbauer emphasized Iris’s perseverance: even after the catalogue had gone to press, Iris continued to seek out material that might still be incorporated into the exhibition. Her profound knowledge allowed her to spot questionable claims and outright mistakes and to correct information printed, for instance, in biographies of Stephanie Brandl (1899–1966). Iris saw to it that such corrections were published in scholarly journals. ^[6] The more knowledge Iris amassed, it seems, the more familiar she became with the life stories of individuals―many of them uprooted―whose life work had been buried or disregarded, and her desire became ever greater to find material that could bring these individuals, and the works they had produced, back into public consciousness.

Competing Forces

In ancient Greece, hot springs were often consecrated to the gods, and thermal baths were erected throughout Greek lands. Not until the days of the Empire did Roman renditions of spas manage to be on par with their Greek precedents. As the Romans expanded into new territory, they too constructed spas, including in the Black Forest. Rome’s fall led to the cessation of hedonistic bathing in much of Europe. During the Middle Ages, as the practice was gradually reintroduced, both the pleasurable and the healing qualities of water were rediscovered. ^[7] The classicist architecture of Baden-Baden―just 50 kilometres west of Iris’s childhood home―is a reminder of its former status as a world-class health spa and casino resort. Having grown up in a landscape dotted with thermal baths and framed on three sides by mighty rivers―the Rhine, the Main, and the Danube―Iris felt the pull of water. She also came to understand the contradictory impulses associated with the cult of bathing. In addition, in her analyses of literature she grappled with opposing forces, for instance, the Apollonian versus the Dionysian. A central―if perhaps somewhat obscured―theme of her work emerged: What are the consequences for art when the practitioner appeals to reason and logic, or instead revels in pleasure and excess? What happens when these opposing forces collide?

From her very first trip to the Adriatic Sea, it seems, Iris was attracted to both the heady atmosphere at the water’s edge and the cool beauty possessed by the remnants of the cultures and religions of the past, for instance, the Roman fora and Romanesque churches. One manifestation of her fascination with spas is Badefreuden, a cultural―and hedonistic―guide to spas in central Europe. ^[8]

Desideratum I. Architecture of Leisure in Croatia, 1950–1975

The concept developed by Iris Meder, together with architect and filmmaker Andrea Seidling, for a vacationer’s and traveler’s guide to Croatia’s architecture was to include resorts, hotels, and other sites in the built environment such as sports facilities, lighthouses, cemeteries, and memorials to partisans. In an earlier issue of this journal, Iris reviewed the nascent studies and documentations of the Yugoslav architecture of the 1960s and 1970s. She wrote that although the authors of these studies had looked at social, economic, and political factors, they had not considered how such factors were brought to bear on architectural implementation in three-dimensional space. ^[9]

As Iris and Andrea were preparing a scholarly treatment of the material, the project became imbued with a sense of urgency―another recurring theme of her work: if action were not taken soon, many of these buildings would be lost. In 2016, as an intermezzo, Iris and Andrea Seidling put together ‘Projekt Helios’, an installation exhibited at Vienna’s sehsaal gallery in order to call attention to plans to demolish a hotel on the island of Lošinj. Erected in 1960, Hotel Helios―consisting of extensively glazed pavilions nestled among pine trees―was a fine example of Croatia’s modernist architecture and a manifestation of Tito’s plan to create an egalitarian society. In 2015, it was converted into lodging for employees of nearby hotels, a purpose it continues to serve as of the summer of 2019. ^[10]

Desideratum II. Passages 1824–2018

Iris’s interest in arcades and passages sparked countless trips, for example to Brno and Budapest. Well acquainted with both cities before the fall of the Iron Curtain, she had the opportunity to observe the changes wrought in its wake. In Budapest, she was especially fond of the Art Nouveau ‘Peacock Passage’ (Páva Udvar)―named in honour of its opulent, wrought-iron peacock gates― situated within Gresham Palace, at Széchenyi Istvan tér 5, on the banks of the Danube. Her meticulous preparation for this project, listing hundreds of arcades located throughout Europe, can be viewed at the Archive Iris Meder. The book on this subject was to remain unfinished as well.

A Collective Effort

In January 2019, a few weeks after Iris’s passing, a group of art historians and architects met to discuss the future of her library and archive. Once that group had convinced the Meder family that the ÖGFA was the proper home for the Archive Iris Meder (AIM), a smaller team―Johann Gallis, Gabriele Kaiser, Gabriele Ruff, and myself―refined the concept. My three colleagues are art historians with experience in archiving and cataloguing―and in setting up a structure for private and public archives and libraries. We also sought expert advice from other Viennese institutions. As a first concrete step, Claudia Mazanek made a rough estimate of the running metres of shelf space required to accommodate Iris’s books and other materials. ^[11] Based on our knowledge of her work, we began to develop a customized cataloguing and indexing system. As we presorted the books, magazines, and work material, we refined the drafted index. During the next phase, we developed our plan in its details regarding the organization and operation of the AIM as a reference library, an open-shelf system ordered and catalogued by subject. By creating a relatively large number of categories, each containing a small number of publications, we arrived at a simple yet effective ordering system. The material as a whole requires 60 metres of shelf space. We also catalogued Iris’s extensive collection of German-language literature, although it is technically not part of the AIM. Other items not in the holdings of the Archive Iris Meder include her collections of postcards, furniture, artwork, and music.

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Archive Iris Meder, Vienna, Austria, 2019. (Courtesy: Sebastian Pichler)

The archive’s contents are structured via three categories: items Iris collected; material she produced; and documents compiled about her life and work. The AIM consists first and foremost of Iris’s books; these can be roughly categorized as monographs of architects and artists, exhibition catalogues, memoirs, surveys of architecture, photo-essays, architectural guides, and collections of scholarly essays on architecture, art, and city planning. In addition to the books, the archive contains architecturally themed games and exhibition posters. ^[12] Second, it contains what Iris herself produced: photographs and slides; texts (articles, essays, books, her master’s thesis, her dissertation); correspondence; a not-yet-definitive list of her publications; compilations of information for future projects. And third, there are documents which will help scholars piece together how Iris worked―among them a 28-page single-spaced itinerary of her extensive travels. ^[13]

The AIM catalogue is available on site (address: Liechtensteinstraße 46a, in Vienna’s ninth district). The inventory system we selected is compatible with Austria’s library database. The information provided on our website includes keywords attuned to web search engines. Two architecture students active in ÖGFA developed a means of presenting the archive to Instagram users. We intend to provide work spaces that will be in keeping with the collection’s intimate character.

For fledgling art historians, the AIM offers an opportunity to examine how Iris’s projects developed. Its structure is designed to enable students and scholars to understand how she applied her profound knowledge in her work. Furthermore, to spotlight the AIM’s contents and purpose, we will hold a variety of events. For its inauguration, we asked ten people who had been well acquainted with her to select a book from the library’s holdings and tell an anecdote about it. This fall we will present several of Iris’s books and periodicals whose themes relate to our annual programme. To find out more about the world Iris inhabited, please contact us at office@oegfa.at.

Editor’s Postscript

After a year of searching, I am very grateful to have found the perfect person to contribute to Südosteuropa a piece dedicated to the memory of Iris Meder: Elise Feiersinger. I also extend my sincere gratitude to Angela Meder, who drew my attention to the establishment of the Archive Iris Meder in Vienna.

I knew Iris for almost thirty years. We met in Rome in 1990, while I was studying at the Università ‘La Sapienza’ and was working as a production assistant for Italian state television. It was always a special treat to explore Rome with Iris. She taught me how to see architecture and its history—and once she started, she never stopped. In Rome, back then, she would casually-enthusiastically direct my attention to Baroque architectural details and relate fascinating stories about that epoch’s architects. My interest in architecture literally lived through Iris. Whenever we met, or travelled together, she taught me how to look at the environment I was in with an architectural eye. And well beyond Rome: in Maulbronn, Stuttgart, Florence, Trieste, Istria, Ljubljana, Vienna, Regensburg, Berlin, Leipzig, Potsdam.

Iris and I had the chance to work together on two occasions. In February 2001, colleagues at the Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (Leibniz-Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europa, GWZO) in Leipzig organized the conference ‘Living in the Metropolis 1900–1930. Dwelling and Modernisation’, and the organizers took my suggestion that Iris would be an asset to the programme. ^[14] Much more recently, in 2016, Iris kindly agreed to write, for this journal, a review of new literature on the (endangered) architectural modernism of socialist Yugoslavia, embellished with several of her own photographs. ^[15] Both engagements gave proof of her extraordinary commitment. After all, scholarly publications do not offer monetary remuneration, making it difficult for independent scholars to invest their time in contributions to such ventures.

In May 2018, travelling to Vienna to attend a labour history conference, I looked forward to seeing Iris again. I had not known how severely ill she was. I could never have expected that my visit to her flat in the Badhausgasse would immediately feel like what it turned out to be: a goodbye. She passed away a few months later. Helping to publicize the efforts of her Viennese friends and colleagues, and her family, to take proper care of her impressive library and archive seems the least I can do to contribute to the preservation and enhancement of her memory and legacy.