Ernst Plischke

Ernst Plischke was born 26 June 1903 in Klosterneuberg, a suburb of Vienna, the elder and only son of Anton Plischke, an architect, and his wife, Emma Pflanzer. Plischke’s education included four years at the Kunstgewerbeschule (College for Arts and Crafts) and three years at the Akademie der bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts), both in Vienna, and graduating in 1926. After a stint in New York, Plischke returned to Vienna, working as an architect and qualifying as an engineer in 1932. Plischke was a member of the Austrian Werkbund, a ‘movement for the promotion of high-quality design and craftsmanship’.

In 1935 Plischke married Anna Lang (nee Schwitzer). Vienna in the 1930s became inhospitable to the Plischkes, due to Ernst’s membership of the socialist wing of Werkbund and Anne’s Jewish faith. In increasingly hostile circumstances, the Plischkes emigrated to Wellington on 9 May 1939.

Plischke was employed by the Department of Housing Construction, where he worked with other European immigrants such as Fritz Feuer (Frederick Farrar) and Friedrich Neumann (Fred Newman). Working under the chief architect Gordon Wilson, they designed multiple-unit state housing located in Auckland and Wellington. A clash with Wilson saw Plischke become a community planner, designing Mangakino and Kaingaroa and community centres in the Hutt Valley and Auckland. In 1947 Plischke resigned from the Department, and went into work with Cedric Firth, finding success and acclaim designing private residences and churches.

Plischke became one of the foremost exponents of Modernist architecture in New Zealand. In 1963 Plischke returned to Vienna to take up the position of professor of architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts. He returned once to New Zealand in 1969 receive an honorary fellowship of the New Zealand Institute of Architects. Plischke died in Vienna in 1992.

Image: "Ernst Plischke as a young man", image from a private collection. (Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand reference: Linda Tyler. 'Plischke, Ernst Anton', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 30-Oct-2012 URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/5p31/plischke-ernst-anton "

Sources:
Linda Tyler, 'Plischke, Ernst Anton - Plischke, Ernst Anton', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 30-Oct-2012. Last accessed August 2013, at http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/5p31/plischke-ernst-anton