Clemens Holzmeister

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Clemens Holtzmeister (March 27, 1886–June 12, 1983) was an Austrian architect of the early twentieth century. The Austrian Academy of Fine Arts listed his life's work as containing 673 projects.

Holzmeister was born in the village of Fulpmes in the Tyrol state of Austria. He attended the Vienna University of Technology and earned a doctorate in architecture in 1919. After submitting a prize winning design, he became the head of the architecture department of Austria's Academy of Fine Arts in 1924. In 1926 he oversaw the remodelling of the Festival Theatre in Salzburg, then spent several years erecting government buildings in Ankara, Turkey.

In 1931 Holzmeister became the head of the Academy of Fine Arts. Besides building projects in Turkey, Austria, and Germany he remained the Director of the Academy until removed in the Anschluss by the new German government in 1938. Although his offices, journals and papers were seized, he had the good luck to be in Turkey on another commission at the time. He remained in Turkey until 1954.

His body of work includes a large number of public and semi-public buildings and churches. Among the awards Holzmeister received during his life are the Grand State Prize of Austria (in June, 1953) and the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (in 1957). He is buried in St. Peter's graveyard in Salzburg. For an extensive discussion of Clemens Holzmeister's sojourn in Turkey see A. Reisman Turkey's Modernization: Refugees from Nazism and Atatürk’s Vision [1].