Marie Neurath
Marie Reidemeister Neurath was a prominent figure in visual education and communication, born on May 27, 1898, in Brunswick, Germany. She pursued her education in science and mathematics at several universities, including Brunswick Technical University and the Universities of Munich, Berlin, and Göttingen. Neurath's work began in earnest when she joined her husband, sociologist Dr. Otto Neurath, at his museum in Vienna, where she contributed to the development of the Vienna Method—later known as Isotype (International System of Typographical Picture Education)—to visually represent statistics and complex information.
As political tensions rose in the 1930s, Marie played a crucial role in safeguarding their work and facilitating their relocation to the Netherlands. Together, they expanded the Isotype method, applying it in various educational contexts and securing contracts internationally. After marrying Otto Neurath in 1941, she continued their collaborative efforts, producing influential works on visual education that have been praised for their clarity and effectiveness. Following her husband's death in 1945, she completed several projects and became recognized for her contributions to children's literature, emphasizing science and social studies through visual means. Marie Neurath passed away on October 10, 1986, in London, leaving behind a legacy that significantly impacted visual communication.
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Subject Terms
Marie Neurath
Fiction and Children's Literature Writer
- Born: May 27, 1898
- Birthplace: Brunswick, Germany
- Died: October 10, 1986
- Place of death: Camden, London, England
Biography
Marie Reidemeister Neurath was born on May 27, 1898, at Brunswick, Germany, to attorney Hans Reidemeister and Sophie Langerfeldt Reidemeister. She attended four German colleges, including Brunswick Technical University and the Universities of Munich, Berlin, and Göttingen. Neurath focused on science and mathematics courses, especially physics.
She met her future husband, sociologist Dr. Otto Neurath, when she traveled with a college group from Göttingen to evaluate educational reforms in Austria. Her brother Kurt Reidemeister, who taught mathematics at the University of Vienna, urged her to meet Neurath and his wife Olga Hahn Neurath. She briefly lived in the Neuraths’ home after her group left Vienna and visited his museum, featuring socioeconomic themes, where his images of statistics intrigued her.
In February 1925, Neurath completed required examinations for her degree and returned to Vienna. On March 1, 1925, Neurath began secretarial work at Otto Neurath’s museum. She contributed to his improvement of the Vienna Method to show statistics visually with pictures. Neurath accompanied him to meetings and events, created drafts of charts for an atlas project in 1929, and traveled with him to Moscow to teach Russians how to make statistical images.
During the early 1930’s, political conflicts disrupted Viennese society. Leaders who seized control banished ideological enemies and closed public museums associated with those people. Suspicious that Otto Neurath was a Communist because of his Soviet Union contacts, police searched his offices in 1934. Because he was traveling, Marie alerted him to avoid Vienna, protected research materials, and arranged to move to the Hague in the Netherlands.
In their new office, she helped revise the Vienna Method, suggesting the name Isotype, an acronym for International System of Typographical Picture Education. They traveled to Mexico and secured contracts with U.S. organizations to teach techniques and create visual images for books.
Wanting to avoid World War II enemy occupation, she fled with Otto Neurath, whose wife had died in 1937, after German troops invaded Rotterdam. On May 14, 1940, they boarded a crowded lifeboat at Scheveringen harbor. A British Navy destroyer crew seized that craft, and authorities interned her at Fulham Institution then London’s Holloway Prison because she was German. Convinced she was not a security threat, they released her on February 8, 1941. She married Otto Neurath eighteen days later in Oxford.
Establishing the Isotype Institute Ltd. in 1942, Neurath and her husband hired illustrators, sought novel ways to apply Isotypes, and prepared Visual History. Neurath’s husband died on December 22, 1945. She completed their collaborative project, Visual Science; traveled worldwide to discuss Isotypes; and edited his writing with colleagues and relatives, incorporating autobiographical details. Neurath prolifically created books with Isotype images for children, emphasizing science, technology, nature, geography, history, and sociology. She died on October 10, 1986, at Camden in London, England.
Critics praised Neurath’s work, stressing her Isotypes often were better at conveying meanings and communicating than words. Publishers translated her books into European and Asian languages. Her visual creations were adapted to other media, including filmstrips.