Otto Niedermoser

Austrian stage designer, architect and professor, 1903 - 1976

After learning from Josef Frank, Josef Hoffmann and Oskar Strnad, Niedermoser worked as a set and costume designer for influential directors such as Max Reinhardt (theatre director) and Otto Preminger (film director). He worked at all of the major theatres in Vienna, as well as in London (St James Theatre), Berlin (Deutsches Theater), at the Salzburg Festival and in New York.

In the course of his architectural studies, he was awarded the “Rom” award for his draft for the Palace of Nations in Geneva in 1927. In 1932, two terraced houses were built by his design in the Werkbundsiedlung in Vienna. No less significant were his works in Metz, Lorraine (local theatre, government building and economic chamber) and in Saarbrücken (interior design of Haus Bürckel).

At the time when he was planning this flat in 1963, he also designed the buildings that Otto Preminger, a Viennese Hollywood film director, used in his film “The Cardinal”. In the same year, he renovated the synagogue in Seitenstettengasse (Vienna).

The main focus of Otto Niedermoser’s works were his contributions at theatre and film sets, but his architectural designs are highly valued for the quality of living that they offer.