Werkstätte Hagenauer Wien – (wHw) – was an Austrian family business from Wien that produced fine, handcrafted items for decoration and everyday use. The workshop closed in 1987, but the company’s business premises, which opened in 1938 on the Wien Opernring, are now a museum and shop.
Carl Hagenauer (1872-1928)
trained as a goldsmith before setting out on his own, founding Werkstätte Hagenauer Wien in 1898, producing small statuettes and useful objects. His workshop has produced his own designs and those of other famous artists.
Karl Hagenauer (1898 – 1956)
Karl was an influential Art Deco designer. At the age of eleven he enrolled at the Wien School of Applied Arts. He studied with Josef Hoffmann and Oskar Strnad and created projects for the Wiener Werkstätte art collective. After World War I, he resumed his training and graduated as an architect. In 1919 he entered the family business and subsequently in 1928, when his father Carl passed away, he assumed leadership in design and management.
Franz Hagenauer (1906 – 1986)
While Karl was the main designer of everyday objects (and some sculptures), his brother Franz specialized in sculpture. Franz Hagenauer also studied from an early age at the Wien School of Applied Arts, joining the family business at the age of twenty. Throughout his career he directed metalworking and metal design courses at the Academy of Applied Arts. Franz took over the company after Karl’s death in 1956.
