Alfred Hofmann was one of the last three directors of the Wiener Werkstätte and as of 1932 its liquidator. He unsuccessfully tried to sell the design archive of the Wiener Werkstätte. After the “Anschluss” of Austria, Alfred Hoffmann was persecuted as a Jew. In 1939, the MAK acquired the archive of the Wiener Werkstätte. The price of the purchase was paid onto a blocked account at the Central Office for Jewish Emigration, Alfred Hoffmann didn’t receive any of the money. He managed to flee from Vienna and get to the USA. After the end of the war, Alfred Hoffmann sought the restitution of the archive of the Wiener Werkstätte or alternatively for a museum to take over the archive for an adequate price. The archive of the Wiener Werkstätte was restituted to him but the Städtischen Sammlungen Wien [Vienna Municipal Collections] withdrew their commitment to buy. Finally, in 1955, the MAK took over the archive of the Wiener Werkstätte from Alfred Hoffmann against a payment of 6,000 Austrian Schillings.
