Haus Wittgenstein, also known as the Stonborough House and the Wittgenstein House) is a house in the modernist style designed and built on the Kundmanngasse, Vienna, by the Austrian architect Paul Engelmann

Paul Engelmann

Paul Engelmann was a Viennese architect who is now best known for his friendship with the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein between 1916 and 1928, and for being Wittgenstein's partner in the design and building of the Stonborough House in Vienna.Engelmann was born in Olmütz in 1891, and studied with...

 and the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...

.

In November 1925, Wittgenstein's sister Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein

Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein

Margarethe "Gretl" Stonborough-Wittgenstein , of the prominent and wealthy Viennese Wittgenstein family, was a sister of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and the pianist Paul Wittgenstein...

 commissioned Engelmann to design and build a large town house. Wittgenstein showed a great interest in the project and in Engelmann's plans, and spent at least two years designing various aspects of the house, including the doors, door knobs, windows, and radiators. Describing the work, Ludwig's eldest sister, Hermine, wrote: "Even though I admired the house very much, I always knew that I neither wanted to, nor could, live in it myself. It seemed indeed to be much more a dwelling for the gods than for a small mortal like me".

It was owned by Thomas Stonborough, son of Margaret until 1968. For two years after this the house was under threat of demolition. It was saved after a campaign by Bernard Leitner in 1971, and since 1975 has housed the Bulgarian Cultural Institute.

External links

• Pictures of the house.