Otto Wagner (1841-1918), Austrian architect and teacher, advocated a breakaway from historicist architecture and became a founder of modern European architecture.

Otto Wagner was born in Vienna, Austria, on July 13, 1841. First he attended the Technical University there; in 1860 he attended the Bauakademie in Berlin; and in 1861-1863 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Up to 1894 Wagner's architectural practice was fully in the prevalent Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque modes. This can be seen in the private dwelling Rennweg 3 in Vienna from 1889, a Baroque, palacelike residence with rather conventional decoration. Wagner's 1897-1898 project for an academy of fine arts combined classical planning principles inspired from the Roman imperial fora with an aggressive monumentality; however, the open metallic crown with floral decoration which topped the main building was a distinctly modern element.

In 1894 Wagner was appointed professor of architecture at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, replacing Carl...