Alma Wittlin Explained

Alma Stephanie Wittlin, Alma S. Wittlin, (March 23, 1899 Lemberg – December 31, 1992 Palo Alto) was an Austrian writer. Her surname also appears as Wittlin-Frischauer.^[1]

Life

Born in or near Lviv, Austro-Hungarian Empire, she was educated in Vienna, receiving a doctorate in art history from the University of Vienna in 1925, and came to England in 1937. She carried out educational research at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge. In 1952, she came to the United States and was naturalized in 1959.^[2]

In 1921, she married Paul Max Frischauer.^[3]

While in Austria, she wrote a number of successful historical novels.^[2]

Wittlin called for museums to take their role as educational institutions more seriously.^[4]

She died in Palo Alto, California.^[2]

An annual lecture given in her honour is sponsored by the International Council of Museums.^[5]

Selected works

• The Museum. Its history and its tasks in education (1949)
• Museums. In search of a usable future (1970)

^[2]

Further reading

• Hadwig Kraeutler: Exil ohne Ende? Briefe einer Rastlosen. Alma S. Wittlins Briefwechsel in (inter)nationalen Netzwerken, in Irene Below, Inge Hansen-Schaberg, Maria Kublitz-Kramer (Hgg.): Das Ende des Exils? Briefe von Frauen nach 1945. Reihe: Frauen und Exil, 7. edition text + kritik, Munich 2015: 170–185.
• : Alma S. Wittlin (1899–1992). In bester Gesellschaft und, Self-made‘, In: Ursula Seeber, Veronika Zwerger und Claus-Dieter Krohn, Kometen des Geldes. Exil und Ökonomie, Exilforschung, 33, Munich 2015: 228–245.
• : Wittlin Alma S., in Ilse Korotin (ed.) biografiA, Lexikon österreichischer Frauen, Band 3, Böhlau, Wien 2016: 3573–3575. (Lexikoneintrag)
• : Alma S. Wittlin: Beobachtungen zu Kriegs- und Friedensreflexionen. In: "Zwischenwelt", Periodical of the Theodor Kramer-Society Vienna, Autumn (October) 2016 (in German)
  • Hadwig Kraeutler: Alma S. Wittlin. Preliminary remarks on the life and scholarship of an austrian émigré, 2013
  • Hadwig Kräutler: The Museologist, Writer, Educationalist Alma S. Wittlin (1899 - 1990). A Preliminary Research Report. Smithsonian Institution, 2011

Notes and References

1. Web site: Alma Wittlin-Frischauer . University of Vienna . de.
2. Web site: Alma S. Wittlin (1899-1992) Preliminary remarks on the life and scholarship of an Austrian émigré . Institute of Modern Languages Research . 2016-11-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161114170235/http://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/Research%20Centres/Exile/Kraeutler%20Seminar%20Details%20(6-03-13).pdf . 2016-11-14 . dead .
3. Book: Wendland, Ulrike . Biographisches Handbuch deutschsprachiger Kunsthistoriker im Exil: Leben und Werk der unter dem Nationalsozialismus verfolgten und vertriebenen Wissenschaftler . 799 . de . 1998 . 3110965739.
4. Book: Art History and Visual Studies in Europe: Transnational Discourses and National Frameworks . 209 . 2012 . 978-9004231702 . BRILL.
5. Web site: Alma S. Wittlin and Stephen E. Weil Memorial Lectures . Austrian National Committee of ICOM.