Karola Bloch facts for kids

Karola Bloch (born Karola Piotrkowska; January 22, 1905, Łódź — July 31, 1994, Tübingen) was a talented Polish-German architect, a supporter of fairness for everyone (a socialist), and a champion for women's rights (a feminist). She was the third wife of the famous German thinker Ernst Bloch.

Early Life and Learning

Karola was born into a Jewish-Polish family who made clothes in a factory. During World War I, her family had to move to Russia. In Moscow, she saw the October Revolution, a huge change in the country's government. This experience made her believe strongly in socialism, the idea that everyone should be treated fairly.

In 1921, her family moved to Berlin, Germany. There, she studied art with a famous artist named Ludwig Meidner. In 1926, she met her future husband, Ernst Bloch. Karola started studying architecture in Vienna, then came back to Berlin to study at a technical university called the Technische Hochschule. She was one of only a few women studying architecture there.

Karola loved a modern building style called Neues Bauen. She learned from famous architects like Hans Poelzig and Bruno Taut. She also spent time at the Bauhaus, a very famous design school, even though she wasn't officially a student. In Berlin, she joined a student club that was against unfair rulers (fascism) and joined a political group called the Communist Party of Germany in 1932. She also took classes at a workers' school where she met other important people like architect Hannes Meyer.

Friends of the Blochs in Berlin included Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Kracauer. They lived in a neighborhood known for its left-wing ideas. When a big government building, the Reichstag, was burned in 1933, bad groups called Nazis surrounded their area. Karola bravely hid Ernst Bloch’s writings and had them secretly moved to safety. The Blochs then fled to Switzerland, where Karola finished her studies at the ETH Zurich university. Because people were being mean to Jewish people, they moved to Vienna and got married in 1934.

Working and Living Away from Home

In Vienna, Karola worked for an architect who had studied with Adolf Loos. She also became friends with Elias Canetti and Alma Mahler. Even though it was dangerous for Jewish people and communists, she shared information with the Soviet Union, making risky trips to Poland. Her husband, Ernst Bloch, once told her, "You put into practice what I write in my philosophy."

After Germany took over Austria (this was called the Anschluss), the couple fled to Paris. There, Karola worked in the studio of Auguste Perret. In 1936, they moved to Prague. Karola had her own design business with a Bauhaus textile designer named Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. She even designed a house in the Tatra mountains. Their son, Jan-Robert, was born in 1937.

In 1938, the family moved to New York in the United States. Because Ernst Bloch didn't speak English well, Karola had to support the family by working as an architect. She was one of only two women working at Mayer & Whittlesey, where she helped design tall buildings like 240 Central Park South. In the U.S., they met up with other friends who had also left their home countries, like Theodor W. Adorno and Hermann Broch.

After moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts, Karola was hired to design a modern house for Harry Slochower in Andover, New Jersey. She also worked as a draftswoman, drawing building plans for a large engineering company called Stone and Webster. She didn't know that this company was also involved in some secret projects. She also worked for Leland & Larsen in Boston and helped organize a group to support Polish architects after the war.

Sadly, in 1943, Karola’s parents, brother, and sister-in-law tragically died during World War II.

Working and Living in Germany Again

In 1949, Karola and Ernst Bloch returned to East Germany. Ernst Bloch became a professor at the University of Leipzig. Karola Bloch worked on designing standard plans for kindergartens and daycare centers for the German Building Academy. About 8,000 childcare centers were built in East Germany during this time, many using her designs. For example, she designed two facilities at the Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei in Leipzig in 1955, which are now protected as historic buildings.

However, Karola’s modern style was not always popular. At that time, the government preferred more old-fashioned, grand buildings. Because of this, she told her friend Hannes Meyer not to move to East Germany. In 1957, Karola, who also disagreed with the government's political ideas, had to leave the main political group, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. This meant she could no longer work as an architect.

For several years, she wrote articles for women without using her name. These articles were about things like making kitchens more efficient and how to understand building plans. She also helped start the International Union of Women Architects.

On August 31, 1961, when the Berlin Wall was built, the Blochs were on a trip in West Germany. They decided not to go back to East Germany, leaving all their belongings behind. They moved to Tübingen, where Ernst Bloch became a professor. After working as an architect for 30 years, Karola Bloch focused on helping prisoners and women who needed support. She helped start an organization called Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe (Help for Self-Help). When she was 76 years old, she even traveled to Nicaragua to support a group called the Sandinistas.

Books She Wrote

• Aus meinem Leben (From My Life), Pfulligen (Nekse), 1981. ISBN: 3-788-502-401
• Die Sehnsucht des Menschen, ein wirklicher Mensch zu werden. Reden und Schriften aus ihrer Tübinger Zeit (The Desire of the Human to Be a Real Human: Speeches and Writings from her Time in Tübingen), Mössingen-Talheim (Talheim Verlag), 1989. ISBN: 3-893-760-032
• "For the Dignity of Woman" (1981), in German Feminist Writings, New York (Continuum), 2002.

Books She Helped Edit

• "Denken heißt Überschreiten": In memoriam Ernst Bloch 1885–1977 ("Thinking Means Transgressing": In Memory of Ernst Bloch 1885-1977), Eds. Karola Bloch and Adelbert Reif, Cologne/Frankfurt am Main (Europäische Verlagsanstalt), 1978. ISBN: 3-548-351-522
• Lieber Genosse Bloch ...: Briefe von Rudi Dutschke, Gretchen Dutschke-Klotz und Karola Bloch 1968-1979 (Dear Comrade Bloch...: Letters from Rudi Dutschke, Gretchen Dutschke-Klotz, and Karola Bloch 1968-1979). Eds. Karola Bloch and Welf Schröter, Mössingen-Talheim (Talheimer Verlag), 1988. ISBN: 3-893-760-016
• "Utopie und Hoffnung : Beiträge zur Aktualität Ernst Blochs (Utopia and Hope: Contributions to the Relevance of Ernst Bloch)", Eds. Karola Bloch and Jürgen C Strohmaier, Mössingen-Talheim (Talheim Verlag), 1989.