Eidlitz Mountain House – Villa Sixta A House That Writes History

In Gnadenwald, a house still stands today with a story few know—the Berghaus Eidlitz, later named Villa Sixta. Since its construction, it has been continuously inhabited, witnessing the lives of numerous residents, each with their own remarkable stories shaped by the eras they lived in.
The visionary behind this villa was Walther Eidlitz (1892–1976), a Jewish writer from Vienna, who commissioned the architect Liane Zimbler to design it. Eidlitz inherited the plot of land (Gnadenwald No. 7) from his parents and built a house that is not only architecturally striking but also carries a fascinating and eventful history.

Photograph "Berghaus Eidlitz-Villa Sixta" Gnadenwald Nr. 7.  Online unter: http://www.liane-zimbler.de/text/kapitel_2_2_7/abb_4.htm (Stand: 19.7.2024; 11:18) . Quelle:  Visionäre & Vertriebene . Österreichische Spuren in der amerikanischen Architektur. S.303.

Liane Zimbler (1892–1987) – Architect

At a time when architecture was still an exclusively male-dominated field, Liane Zimbler successfully began realizing her designs in Vienna in the 1920s—without formal qualifications. By the 1930s, she became Austria’s first officially recognized female architect. In 1938, as a Jewish woman, she was forced to flee to the United States, where she launched an equally successful second career.

Photograph Liane Zimbler. Online, ​http://www.liane-zimbler.de (Stand: 19.7.2024, 11:30)

Early Life & Career in Vienna

Born Juliane Angela Fischer on May 31, 1892, in Prerau, Moravia (now Přerov, Czech Republic), Zimbler moved with her family to Vienna around 1900. She attended the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) and increasingly focused on architecture classes. In 1916, she married lawyer Otto Zimbler.
Her first architectural commission came in 1918—a residential house in Bad Aussee. After the birth of her daughter Eva in 1922, she received another major project: renovations for the Ephrussi Bank in Vienna. By 1924, she had opened her own architectural office in Vienna’s 4th district (Schleifmühlgasse).

Success & Escape from Nazi Austria

Between 1931 and 1936, she completed numerous projects in Vienna, including apartment and commercial renovations. In spring 1938, she passed Austria’s civil architecture examination—but as a Jewish woman, she was forced to flee to London and then Los Angeles that September.

Second Career in the U.S.

After her husband’s death in 1940, she took over his firm alongside her partner, Anita Toor. In 1952, Zimbler designed the "Feldmann Kitchen"—a precursor to today’s built-in kitchen units, featuring long countertops with integrated appliances and storage.
In 1960, she developed the "Granny House" concept—a small, self-contained living space (like an in-law suite) on the same property as the main residence. In 1961, she collaborated with Carl Schwarz on the Candianides House in Ventura and curated the exhibition "The Washable Living."

Later Years & Legacy

She retired in the late 1970s and passed away on November 11, 1987, in Los Angeles.
Liane Zimbler’s pioneering work in modernist architecture and functional design left a lasting impact in both Europe and America.

Foto Eidlitz, Walther. In: Eidlitz, Walther. Sadananda-Archiv, https://sadananda.com/ (Stand: 20.7.2024) 

Walther Eidlitz (1892–1976) – Writer, Indologist, Scholar of Religion

Walther Eidlitz (August 28, 1892, Vienna – August 28, 1976, Vaxholm, Sweden) was an Austrian writer known for his poetry, novels, and plays. Deeply influenced by anthroposophy—a spiritual philosophy viewing humanity as a unity of body, soul, and spirit—he later devoted himself to studying India’s spiritual history.

Early Life & Family

Born into a wealthy Jewish family from Eisenstadt (then part of Hungary in Austria-Hungary, now Burgenland), Eidlitz showed early literary talent. After completing his secondary education, he studied civil engineering at Vienna’s Technical University. During World War I, he served as a guard in an Austrian camp for Russian prisoners of war.
His mother, Friederike Eidlitz (née Weiss, 1872–1944), was deported to Theresienstadt in 1942 and died there in 1944, despite being on the "Prominentenliste A" (a list of protected prisoners). Through his maternal grandfather, Sigmund Weiss, Eidlitz inherited partial ownership of the Wiesenhof Hotel (Absam) and Gnadenwalderhof/Speckbacherhof (Gnadenwald).

Spiritual & Intellectual Journey

After the war, Eidlitz converted to Catholicism and worked as a freelance writer in Vienna. Drawn to Martin Buber’s humanist Zionism, socialist ideas, and Rudolf Steiner’s concept of the "threefold social order," he engaged with anthroposophy—a spiritual worldview based on Steiner’s clairvoyant insights into higher realms.
In 1924, he received Vienna’s Art Prize and published several dramas and novels by 1932. He traveled widely through Europe and America, meeting figures like Henry Ford and Selma Lagerlöf, and wrote feuilletons for Vienna’s Neue Freie Presse and the Jewish journal Menorah.

Controversial Nazi Sympathies & Reinvention

In 1933, Eidlitz resigned from the Austrian PEN Club after it denounced Nazi Germany’s intellectual oppression. His pro-Nazi stance—including likening Hitler to a "Christ-like force" in his book Journey to the Four Winds (1935)—led him to manipulate birth records in Eisenstadt to be recognized as an "Honorary Aryan."

Spiritual Transformation in India

In 1938, fascinated by Indian philosophy, Eidlitz left his family and traveled to India. There, he became a disciple of Shri Maharaj, a Hindu guru, and later studied under Swami Sadananda Dasa, a German Hindu monk, in a British internment camp (1938–1946). Immersed in Vaishnavism (Bhakti Yoga), he documented this period in his autobiography, Unknown India:
"Every time I visited Sadananda, I was met with chaos—yet he remained serene. ‘Welcome, Vamandas!’ he’d say. ‘Sit on my bed.’ An invisible dome of peace hovered over his bunk."
"His harsh words felt like ‘aggressive grace’—a hammer striking the ego until sparks of divine love [Bhakti] flew."
-- Sadananda Archive (sadananda.com)

Later Years & Legacy

Released in 1946, Eidlitz returned to Europe, spending his final years in Vaxholm, Sweden, where he died on his 84th birthday in 1976. His legacy spans literature, anthroposophy, and Hindu studies, reflecting a life of radical transformation.

The Property and the Creation of Berghaus Eidlitz

In 1937, a small parcel of land (cadastral plot EZ 42/2) was subdivided from the Gnadenwalderhof estate, including the hotel’s former "air bath" (a sunbathing area), and transferred to Walther Eidlitz. On April 23, 1937, Eidlitz became the official owner, planning to build a "Tyrolean country house" for his wife Helene ("Hella") Spira and their son Günther (b. 1933).

Liane Zimbler’s Architectural Vision

The design was entrusted to Liane Zimbler, Austria’s first state-certified female architect. She drafted modern, innovative plans for the villa but could not oversee its completion—forced to flee to London in April 1938 due to Nazi persecution, she later emigrated to the United States with her husband Ottoand daughter Eva.

Construction and Eidlitz’s Absence

​Despite Zimbler’s departure, Eidlitz managed to complete the house. However, he barely used it. By 1937/38, he had already left for India, seeking the "origins of the Aryan people" as part of his esoteric and spiritual studies.

War and Internment

After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Eidlitz—as an Austrian citizen in British territory—was interned in India for six years. He only returned to Europe after 1945, eventually reuniting with his family in Sweden, where he spent his final years.