He is mostly known in Turkey for the public buildings he built in Ankara. The architect who drew the projects of many buildings built in the newly founded city of Ankara between 1927 and 1935; lived in Turkey between 1938 and 1953. The parliament building, which is still in use, is his most important work in Turkey.
Clemens Holzmeister was born on March 27, 1886, in Fulpmes, Austria.
After high school, he studied architecture at the Vienna Technical University. He then worked as a teacher at a state vocational school and then as a research assistant until his doctorate in 1919.
In 1924, he was appointed director of the master school of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where he later worked as a professor until he was dismissed in 1938 due to his understanding of modern architecture. In 1927, the first orders began to arrive for Ankara, the capital of the newly established Turkey. Holzmeister was tasked with building ministries and military facilities here. During the same period, that is, from 1928 to 1933, he held an official position at the Düsseldorf Art Academy.
Clemens Holzmeister (27 March 1886 – 12 June 1983) was a prominent Austrian architect and stage designer of the early twentieth century. The Austrian Academy of Fine Arts listed his life's work as containing 673 projects. He was the father of Judith Holzmeister.
As the influence of National Socialism expanded to Austria, Clemens Holzmeister was expelled from the Vienna Academy in 1938. Thereupon, he took refuge in Turkey and started teaching at Istanbul Technical University in 1940.
In the following years, he moved back and forth between Brazil, Austria, and Türkiye and implemented the works he received there. Although his name was cleared after the Second World War, he returned to Austria only in 1954. Until this date, he concentrated on his courses at Istanbul Technical University and the construction of the Turkish Grand National Assembly buildings group, which gave him a special position among the architects working in Ankara.
After returning, he became rector of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He received an honorary doctorate from Istanbul Technical University in 1963 and from Vienna Technical College in 1971. Clemens Holzmeister passed away on June 12, 1983, in Hallein, Salzburg.
In 2008, a street in Ankara was named after Holzmeister.