30 VII 1898, Vienna — 9 X 1944, KL Auschwitz-Birkenau
Biography
Frederika Dicker-Brandeis was a painter, architect, and interior designer of the Bauhaus movement. In the Theresienstadt ghetto, she organised drawing lessons for children which functioned as a form of emotional therapy.
She was born in 1898 in Vienna, to a poor Jewish family. Her father was a shopkeeper assistant and her mother, Karolina, died when Frederika was still a child, in 1902. Frederika’s later life was strongly affected by her mother’s absence. She studied photography and began her professional career working in a puppet theatre. Later, she enrolled in the School of Arts and Crafts in Vienna (later the School of Applied Arts) where she attended drawing lessons taught by Franz Čižek. Johannes Itten, a painter and educator active in the Bauhaus movement was one of her teachers. In 1936, Frederika married Pavel Brandeis, a trained carpenter.
In 1942, Frederika and her husband were transported to the ghetto in Terezín (Theresienstadt) where she helped organise clandestine educational activities for children, led art lessons and gave lectures. She saw art as a way of expressing difficult feelings and a way to understand children’s emotions. After the war, her methods influenced the development of art therapy, i.e., provision of therapy through art.
In September 1944, Frederika’s husband was transported to Auschwitz, and she volunteered for the next transport to join him. Her husband survived the war, but Frederika died in 1944.
Portrét neznámé dívky
JMP, Inv. No. 180.017
Žena v červeném (Marie s pletením)
JMP, Inv. No. 176.184
Sen
JMP, Inv. No. 176.188
Zátiší s vajíčkem, houbami a cibulí
JMP, Inv. No. 176.253
The owner of visual materials is the Jewish Museum in Prague.
Frederika Dicker-Brandeis was a painter, architect, and interior designer of the Bauhaus movement. In the Theresienstadt ghetto, she organised drawing lessons for children which functioned as a form of emotional therapy.
She was born in 1898 in Vienna, to a poor Jewish family. Her father was a shopkeeper assistant and her mother, Karolina, died when Frederika was still a child, in 1902. Frederika’s later life was strongly affected by her mother’s absence. She studied photography and began her professional career working in a puppet theatre. Later, she enrolled in the School of Arts and Crafts in Vienna (later the School of Applied Arts) where she attended drawing lessons taught by Franz Čižek. Johannes Itten, a painter and educator active in the Bauhaus movement was one of her teachers. In 1936, Frederika married Pavel Brandeis, a trained carpenter.
In 1942, Frederika and her husband were transported to the ghetto in Terezín (Theresienstadt) where she helped organise clandestine educational activities for children, led art lessons and gave lectures. She saw art as a way of expressing difficult feelings and a way to understand children’s emotions. After the war, her methods influenced the development of art therapy, i.e., provision of therapy through art.
In September 1944, Frederika’s husband was transported to Auschwitz, and she volunteered for the next transport to join him. Her husband survived the war, but Frederika died in 1944.