Frommer, Marie

Marie Frommer was the first woman architect in Germany who acquired the title of Doctor. She was born on March 17th, 1880 in Warsaw and grew up in Leipzig. After finishing high school, she gained a diploma as a teacher of languages.
She registered as a student of architecture at the Berlin Technical University in November 1911 and received her diploma in June 1916. After a few years of work in private studios at home and abroad she opened her own studio in Berlin in 1925.
Her emphasis was on restructuring of shops, businesses and a hotel where she was also responsible for the interior that was reported on in architectural publications and woman’s magazines. Owing to her Jewish background, she was expelled from the German Association of Architects in 1933.
She immigrated to England in the autumn of 1936 and travelled with the beginning of WW II to the U.S.A. Marie Frommer only received a work permit as a licensed architect in New York after passing the necessary exams. She became an independent architect after 10 years of exile at the age of 56. Marie Frommer dies on November 16th, 1976 in New York.

Bibliography:
Marie Frommer. Projekte zwischen Berlin und Exil in New York, in: Frau Architekt. Seit mehr als 100 Jahren: Frauen im Architektenberuf. Begleitbuch zur Ausstellung im Deutschen Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt/Main vom 30. September 2017 bis 9. März 2018, hrsg. v. Mary Pepchinski, Christina Budde, Wolfgang Voigt, Peter Cachola Schmal, Tübingen 2017, 141–145.