Cooper Hewitt says...
Margarethe (Grette) Fröhlich was born in Vienna in 1901 to a father who was a jeweler. In 1921, Fröhlich enrolled at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich. Following the death of her first husband in 1926, Fröhlich moved with her young daughter to Frankfurt in 1929. It was there that she developed an interest in architecture and interior design, specifically interiors for workers' housing--Siedlungen. She studied for three years at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Frankfurt and married Ernst Fröhlich, a Czech journalist, in 1933. Fröhlich and her family fled the Nazi regime in 1933 and relocated to Prague.
It was in Prague that Fröhlich’s career as an interior designer and model maker began. Fröhlich became friends with designer Friedl Dicker (1898-1944), who taught her how to make isometic drawings. She designed her first interior for the son of a neighbor. Her interior designs were for working class housing, and received occasional attention in local periodicals. She spent much of her career during this time making models for other designers, and maintained her business from home.
Fleeing the Nazi’s yet again, Fröhlich and her family moved to England, where she found some work as a model maker for Franz Singer. After separating from her husband, Fröhlich and her daughter moved to New York in 1943. She built models for Harrison & Fouilhoux and Raymond Loewy until 1948. From 1948-1950, she taught three summer courses in Home Planning and Furnishing at Columbia University's Teacher's College. After 1950, she started a new career as a teacher at the Waldorf School, where she taught the History of Art and Architecture and Handwork.
