Brno was the sixth largest city in the Austrian part of the Monarchy at the beginning of the 20th century (after Vienna, Prague, Terst, Lvov and Graz). An international city planning competition was announced in April 1901 for the zoning plan of Brno (the competitors had to be of German nationality). The first prize was awarded to Eugen Fassbender and the second to Karl Mayreder in January 1902.
The Villa for Carl and Karoline Reissig was built according to a design by the Viennese architect Leopold Bauer in the Brno neighborhood of Pisárky in 1901–02. The Upper Silesian Krnov native (1872–1938) worked on the Brno villa design at a time when he had obtained the second prize in the renowned competition for the House for an Art Lover, announced in Darmstadt. The combining of the English concept of a house and the principles of Viennese Modernism gave birth to a remarkable work of art in the spirit of so-called Gesamtkunstwerk. The house was referred to as the “first Modern house in Austria” in the period press.