Harry Seidler — architect with roots in the Russian Empire
Harry Seidler was an Austrian-born architect who became Australia's most celebrated modernist, designing landmark buildings including Australia Square and the MLC Centre in Sydney. A student of Walter Gropius at Harvard and Marcel Breuer's apprentice, he brought the Bauhaus tradition to the Southern Hemisphere.
Tracing the roots — Bessarabia / Rus
Born in Vienna in 1923 to parents with roots in Bessarabia and Russia (Russian Empire), Seidler fled Nazi Austria, was interned in Britain and Canada during WWII, and eventually built his career in Australia. His parents' Eastern European Jewish origins and his own experience of persecution gave him a refugee's determination to build something lasting.
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Bessarabia / Rus. At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.