manifestation of the will. It is his part to seize that, not only from the spiritual siele 
but also from the sentimental side. He is able to express significantly the concise 
pregnance of the material and in the construction of houses, by underlining the struc- 
tive harmony of the interior and exterior, he is able to produce more. It is just this 
plus or more, that makes Hoffmann exceptional, it includes spirit and ability. His 
significance and his creation may be very European but it is Austrian as well. The 
greater an artist, the morely deeply he shows the natural tendency of his race. Though 
only Viennese by choice for he was born in Moravia and arrived in the Capital when 
22 years of age, he has nevertheless created the Wiener Werkstaette, that most signi- 
ficant factor of culture which has been carrying the glory of Viennese industrial art 
for decades into all sorts of countries with undeniable effect. Again today, where we 
may speak of an artistic international and that not in the worst sense, Hoffmann proved 
at the Werkbundausstellung 1930, that it possible smilingly to keep up the high 
Standard of the cool and realistic thought of the Werkstaette; that is to smile happiiy 
in the kindest way, the way that is liked everywhere. 
Hoffmann's Creations include all possibilities of architecturai forms, commencing 
from the representative monumental forms and constructions, to the silver bowl and 
muslin curtain, from the factory and business house to the residential room, from the 
Sanatorium and hotel to he populär residence and to the cottage colony. He has 
enriched all the regions of architecture with surprising Creations although none of 
his projected monumental constructions are yet executed. 
For decades, on the occassion of exhibitions, he has represented Austria. He did 
so from 1896 to 1910; at the Exhibition of the Sezession in Vienna 1908, at the Artistic 
Exhibition at Mannheim 1910, at the Artistic Exhibition in Rome 1914, at the Werkstaette 
Exhibition in Köln, at the Bugra in Leipzig, of Great Austria, at the Exhibition of Stock 
holm and Copenhagen in 1918, at the International Industrial Artistic Exhibition in 1925, 
at the Exhibition in Paris and at that one in Stockholm in 1930 for the small state of 
Austria. Exraordinary consideration is given to his exhibited constructions. When con- 
sidering Hoffmann's works, one can state, with some astonishment, that most of the 
Problems the public were fervantly fighting, he sensed decades before and managed 
to solve them in his way without much troubie. In the year 1905, his Palais Stoclet in 
Brussels was already solving the question of cubical architecture and in such a way 
that the artistic sentiment was always victorious over the rationaiising reason. The 
ground plans of his villages were always according to the personei demands of the 
inhabitants and even 30 years ago were renouncing the effects of the facades. That 
meant a very audacious undertaking at a time when rented houses in the suburbs 
were covered by a palace architecture and where each vilia was supposed to look 
like a castie. It is one of Hoffmann's highest virtues that he has been able to revive the 
logically found hole-facade by combining all parts by clever ornamental decoration. 
Hoffmann was surely the first Architect who employed striped wall-papers horizontally. 
Nowadays that has nearly become fashionable, but he dared to try it for the first 
time in the year 1911 without giving it much consideration. The outlining of the hori- 
XVII