Isidor Demant

Isidor Demant was born in 1880 in Chernivtsi, in the Bukovina region. After studying architecture in Vienna, he began his career as an official with the State Railway Administration in Linz. Before marrying, his in-laws forced to him to submit to being baptized. Demant had an artistic nature. This prompted him to enter early retirement, so he could devote his time to painting. He established a lending library and took part in excavations overseen by the archaeologist Dr. Welter, working for him as a draughtsman for three years.

Isidor Demant became renowned in Linz for founding the Gemeinnützigen Kleinsiedlungsgenossenschaft ("Charitable Small Housing Estate Cooperative"). The so-called Demantsiedlungen (Demant Housing Estates) were built in Haguenau, Neue Welt and Kleinmuenchen in collaboration with the architect Paul Theer. They were planned as a social project for unemployed people seeking housing in the 1930s. The Nazi regime began persecuting Demant and his four children in March, 1938. They fled and were able to survive in Egypt, Cyprus, Palestine and Brazil.
Isidor Demant died on the island of Cyprus in 1953.