Otti Berger was born on 4th October 1898 to a Jewish, Hungarian speaking family in Vörösmart (today Zmajevac) near the Danube River. The area has a rich, ancient textile tradition and her parents were wealthy textile merchants.
You can see the textile shop in the picture above, which displays the name of her father, Lajos Berger.
Otti went to school in Vienna and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb from 1922-1926. In January 1927 she enrolled at the Bauhaus school where she attended the compulsory preliminary course under the supervision of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Vaszilij Kandinszkij. During this time, she brought with her traditional Hungarian dresses, which she wore to dance at the famous "Bauhaus-Fest." This act symbolized her ability to blend modernist ideals with a deep respect for her cultural roots and the traditions of her Hungarian upbringing.
Otti Berger travelled and worked throughout Europe: in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Holland and Great Britain.
Why do you think it was important for Otti Berger to bring these traditional dresses to the Bauhaus? How might this have influenced her work?