Dr. Annie Gray

For that, she was arrested, interrogated by the Gestapo and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

But today, we're going to talk about that damned kitchen.

But the Frankfurt kitchen had now become a design icon.

This is Christina Zwingli, an architect and expert on Margarita Shute-Lahotsky.

She was still a student when she met Margarita for the first time.

It was through this that Christina got to hear Margarita's story at the Frankfurt kitchen.

Around 1919, just after World War I ended, Vienna became the capital of the new First Republic of Austria.

Life was very difficult.

Many people were poor, hungry and struggling to survive.

At that time, a new social movement began in Vienna called the Settlement Movement.

It aimed to improve living conditions for working-class people.

Margarita got involved with the planning of new settlement houses.

During this time, it was mainly women who did the housework and cooking.

Margarita wanted to make these tasks easier for them.

She met German architect Ernst May when he visited Vienna and showed him her designs.

She must have been a very confident young woman, presenting her work so directly and impressing him with it.

That's how he came to know her ideas on streamlining housework.

Ernst May took Margarita to Frankfurt, Germany, where there was a housing shortage.

The work kitchen had connections from the entrance hall to the kitchen and then from the kitchen to the living room with the dining area.

Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky designed this setup.