Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein


Margaret "Gretl" Stonborough-Wittgenstein, of the prominent and wealthy Viennese Wittgenstein family, was a sister of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and the pianist Paul Wittgenstein. She was the subject of a famous 1905 portrait painted for her wedding by the artist Gustav Klimt, which was sold in 1960 by her son Thomas and may now be seen in the Neue Pinakothek gallery in Munich.

Biography

Marriage and children

On 7 January 1905, she married a wealthy American, Jerome Stonborough. Of German Jewish ancestry and born Jerome Herman Steinberger, he had had his name changed to Stonborough in 1900. He was also an art collector. Margaret and Jerome were close friends with Hermann Rothe, and Margaret was the godmother of his daughter Margarethe. The couple had two sons and divorced in 1938; Jerome committed suicide shortly thereafter.
After the First world war, Stonborough-Wittgenstein was appointed by the American Relief Administrator Herbert Hoover as special representative of the American Relief Program for Austria. When working in juvenile prisons as a psychotherapy adviser, she came into contact with Sigmund Freud and was analyzed by him over the course of two years. They remained in contact until Freud's death.

Haus Wittgenstein

In 1926, she commissioned her brother Ludwig and the architect Paul Engelmann to design and build Haus Wittgenstein in Vienna. Sold by her son Thomas in 1968, this noted building still stands today, and now houses the Bulgarian Cultural Institute.

Final years

In 1940, she emigrated to the US, but returned to Austria after the war and obtained restitution of part of her wealth which had been confiscated by the Third Reich. She moved back into Haus Wittgenstein until her death in 1958, passing the house on to her son, Thomas.