The Austrian painter, graphic artist, writer, and playwright Oskar Kokoschka received distinction as a protégé while still studying at the Viennese School of Applied Arts. He worked for the Wiener Werkstätten (Vienna Workshops) on a freelance basis, creating decorative objects in the Jugendstil for the Cabaret Fledermaus in Vienna, which subsequently also staged his plays, “Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen” (“Murder, Hope of Women”) and “Sphinx und Strohmann,” (“Sphinx and Strawman”), both written before the age of 25.