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By 1896 Olbrich and his contemporary Josef Hoffman had come under the influence of the painters Gustav Klimt and Kolo Moser and were involved in the founding of the anti-academic Secession in Vienna (1897). In 1898, having set up practice on his own, Olbrich completed his first major commission, the Secession building (interior modified), an exhibition building on a prominent site in the Friedrichstrasse. Its design, said to have been inspired by Klimt, immediately established Olbrich as one of Austria's most progressive architects: its cubic forms and battered walls, with a central, spherical, perforated dome of metal laurel leaves set between four short stone pylons, caused outrage in Vienna but brought Olbrich international acclaim and an invitation (1899) from Ernest-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, to join the artists' colony he proposed to set up in the Mathildenhöhe Park at Darmstadt.
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