Případ Adolf Loos – Long Christopher (2017)

Adolf Loos is one of the most significant figures of the first half of the twentieth century. His importance to the world of architecture is comparable to such personalities as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, or Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Loos had his admirers, but also many enemies. He provoked primarily the bourgeoisie, but often attacked his competitors in the field without restraint. His originality and unconventionality eventually led him into a very unpleasant situation, which this book addresses. At the beginning of September 1928, the architect was arrested by the Vienna police and accused of molesting children. The press soon learned of the incident and turned it into a public scandal that culminated in a grand trial. However, the controversy surrounding the entire affair was not just about the question of 'guilty or not guilty.' In fact, it pitted the left against the right, representatives of modernity against their conservative critics. Christopher Long reconstructs the facts with a sense of criminal investigation. His book compellingly recounts not only Loos's arrest and subsequent trial but also serves as an interesting probe into the functioning of the police, judiciary, and journalistic community of that time.