Renate Wagner-Rieger

Renate Wagner-Rieger died in Vienna, after a brief illness a few weeks before her 60th birthday on December 11, 1980.

In 1971 Renate Wagner-Rieger was appointed full professor at University of Vienna, she was the first woman in the history department to hold this position.

Wagner-Rieger paid particular attention to previously neglected and partially devalued era of Historicism in architecture (the breakdown in romantic historicism, strict historicism and late historicism stems from it) and important contributions towards the study of Gründerzeit. In 1968 she initiated the large-scale research project called "Wiener Ringstraße", also known as "The Ringstraße: Image of an Era: the expansion of the inner city of Vienna under Emperor Franz Joseph" which studied the ring road in the historic center of Vienna.

In 1964 she presented to the International Congress of Art History in Bonn her research on early gothic architecture in Italy and a paper on historicism which brought her to international attention.

Renate Wagner-Rieger (January 10, 1921 – December 11, 1980, her maiden name is Renate Rieger) was an Austrian art historian and educator, with significant research in the fields of architecture and historicism.

Renate Rieger was born January 10, 1921 in Vienna. In 1942 she studied art history at the University of Vienna, under Hans Sedlmayr and Karl Oettinger and received her PhD in 1947 under Karl Maria Swoboda on the architectural facade of the Viennese apartments from the 16th to the mid-18th century. In 1956 she became a lecturer at University of Vienna and in the same year married historian Walter Wagner.