Introduction
Lisbeth Oestreicher was born in 1902 in Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary,
Czech Republic). Her father, Karl Oestreicher, died in 1915 during the
First World War shortly before the birth of her sister Marie.
After completing secondary school in Carlsbad, she attended art schools
in Munich and Vienna. During her holidays she worked at home designing
and making women’s knitwear. While on a family visit to Berlin in 1925,
she was introduced to the ideas of the Bauhaus at a lecture by Walter
Gropius. The following year she became a student in the textile
department at the Bauhaus in Dessau. She received her diploma in 1930.
During her time there she designed curtain and furniture fabrics for
several German textile manufacturers.
At the end of 1930 she attended the wedding of her brother Felix in
Amsterdam. While in the Netherlands, she showed her designs to several
textile companies in Twente. She received enough commissions from them
to establish her own studio as a freelance textile designer in
Amsterdam. Her sister Marie joined her there in 1937 after completing
her training as a photographer in Vienna. Together, Lisbeth and Marie
contributed to magazines such as De Libelle under the name ‘Model en
Foto Austria’.
In May 1940 the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany. When the
occupying forces made it obligatory for Jews to report to the
Westerbork transit camp in 1942, Lisbeth did so. Her sister Marie
joined the resistance.
Lisbeth managed to prolong her stay in Westerbork by knitting sweaters
for the wife of the camp’s commandant Albert Konrad Gemmeker. Since
none of the sweaters were finished at the time of successive transports
to Germany, Lisbeth saved herself and her future husband Otto Birman a
chemical engineer, from being sent to the gas chambers. She and Otto
were married in Westerbork on May, 6 1945. In 1947, they decided to
take in my two sisters and me. Their house in Amersfoort became our
home.
After the war, Lisbeth designed knitwear that was sold at Metz & Co
in Amsterdam, which had established itself as the leading retailer of
modernist furniture, fabrics, clothing and household items in the
1920s.
Gradually Lisbeth grew less interested in designing and became active
in UNICEF and later AMNESTY International, activities that she hoped
would contribute to ‘a better world’. She did that in her own measured
and intelligent fashion, seldom in the spotlight, but with clarity and
conviction. She retained her interest in art and literature until late
in life and maintained friendships with Gunta Stölzl, her textile
teacher at the Bauhaus, and with fellow Bauhaus alumni Andor and Eva
Weininger. She also kept in contact with the Dutch designers Andries
Copier and Kitty van der Mijll Dekker.In Amersfoort she was visited
frequently by friends and acquaintances from the Bauhaus, including Tut
Schlemmer, the wife of Oscar Schlemmer, and Gertrud Arndt, Gunta Stölzl
and the Weiningers.
Later in life, Lisbeth turned back to textiles and created hand-made
bedspreads, wall hangings and clothes for family and friends.
Works by Lisbeth Oestreicher can be found in the collections of the
Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Textielmuseum in Tilburg and the
Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin, Germany.
Biography of Lisbeth Birman-Oestreicher 1902-1989
| 1902 |
born in Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic) |
| 1918-1926 |
studies art in Vienna and Prague |
| 1926-1930 |
studies at the Bauhaus in Dessau (Germany) |
| 1931-1942 |
freelance designer in her own studio in Amsterdam |
| 1937-1942 |
runs ‘Model en Foto Austria’ with her sister Marie |
| 1942-1945 |
interned in Westerbork concentration camp |
| 1945 |
marriage to Otto Birman, moves to Amersfoort |
| 1947 |
cares for the daughters of her brother Felix Oestreicher |
| 1950 |
member of the Gebonden Kunsten in de federatie (GKf) |
| 1945-1989 |
lives and works in Amersfoort |
| 1989 |
dies at home in Amersfoort |