Erica Conrat studied art history at the University of Vienna from 1902 until 1905 under Franz Wickhoff and Alois Riegl and in 1905 received her doctorate with dissertation contributions to the history of Georg Raphael Donner. She was the first woman who completed the study of art history at the University of Vienna with a doctorate.
She was the youngest of three sisters, and the oldest, Ilse Conrat was a sculptor. In the same year Erica married fellow student Hans Tietze, he was also studying art history during the same time. This was the first "Vienna School" art history program
Between 1908 and 1910 the Tietzes had four children.
The sculptor Georg Ehrlich created two bronze busts of Hans and Erica Tietze which are now in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna, as well as numerous portrait drawings of Erica Tietze. In 1938 the couple emigrated to the United States. for political reasons during World World War II, Erica Tietze worked as a researcher, academic lecturer at Columbia University and published art historical publications on Renaissance artists as well as contemporary Vienna artists until her death.
In 1970, a room at the Austrian Museum of Baroque Art was named in Erica Tietze-Conrat’s honor for her contributions to the study of Austrian artists. In the fall of 2004 the International Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat society founded in Vienna, which has taken the care of the complete works of art historian-married couple to the task.
And work of the persecuted and exiled under Nazism scientists." Saur, Munich, 1999, volume 2, p 679-703.
