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Friedrich Waerndorfer, originally Wärndorfer (* May 5, 1868 in Vienna; † August 9, 1939 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania), was an Austrian entrepreneur, art patron, and founding member of the Wiener Werkstätte.

Life
Fritz Waerndorfer came from the Jewish industrial family Wärndorfer, which owned one of the largest cotton mill operations in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the son of Samuel Wärndorfer (* 1843; † 1912) and his wife Berta née Neumann (* 1844; † 1921). In 1895 he married the translator Lili Jeanette née Hellmann (* 1874 in Vienna; † 1952 Nyack, California), and they had three kids: Helene (“Helen”) Bunzl (* 1897; † 1938), Karl Richard (“Charles Richard Warndof“) (* 1899; † 1983). and Herbert (* 1905; † 1924). Fritz and Lili divorced in 1930. In 1931 he married the young, English-born pianist and composer Fiona McCleary (* 1900; † 1986).

Through Hermann Bahr he came into contact with the Vienna Secession and its leading members, including Josef Hoffmann, Gustav Klimt und Koloman Moser.

In 1902 Fritz Waerndorfer ordered the construction of a music salon designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh from Glasgow, in his home in Währing, Carl-Ludwig-Straße 45 (today Weimarer Straße 59, Ecke Colloredogasse 19), where he and his wife lived with his father Samuel and brother August (1865-1940). In 1902 the father and both brothers were registered as partners in the Wärndorfer, Benedict, Mautner cotton mill in Náchod, according to “Lehmann's Allgemeinem Wohnungs-Anzeiger für Wien.” At the same time, Mackintosh’s wife Margaret MacDonald designed a Frieze for the salon, based on the Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck’s “The seven princesses.”

In 1903 Fritz Waerndorfer financed the founding of the Wiener Werkstätte and was its commercial director. In 1913 he had to file for personal bankruptcy, in which he and his wife lost 12.5 million Austrian krone, according to their son. Under the pressure of his family, he emigrated to the US in 1913 with his wife and kids. (The Wiener Werkstätte, also approaching bankruptcy, was saved by Otto Primavesi, Moritz Gallia, and others.) In the US he was at first a farmer, and then a designer for a textile company. He began to watercolor paint, and his work was shown in the gallery of Otto Nirenstein (later Otto Kallir) in Vienna.

Fritz Waerndorfer owned an extensive and top-class art collection, which today is scattered and can only be reconstructed through photos and other documents. From Gustav Klimt, whom Waerndorfer especially appreciated, he acquired important works such as “Pallas Athene” and “Hope I.” Among other things, his collection included about 150 letters from Aubrey Beardsley and works from Belgian sculptor and graphic artist Georg Miinne, both artists whose exhibits were appreciated by the Secessionists. Another highlight of the collection was numerous graphical works from Koloman Moser and Marcus Behmer.

His extensive letters to Carl Otto Czeschka, who had been called from the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna to Hamburg in 1907, documents Czeschka’s continued, intense collaboration with the Wiener Werkstätte.

In the USA he called himself “Frederick Warndof” (or “Fred Warndof”) and worked as a farmer, designer, and painter. He died on August 9, 1939 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Weblinks

 * Entry for Waerndorfer from the website Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal from AGSÖ, Archivs für die Geschichte der Soziologie in Österreich
 * Entry for Waerndorfer from the website Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal from AGSÖ, Archivs für die Geschichte der Soziologie in Österreich