The Löw-Beers had settled in Moravia starting in the 17th century and contributed significantly to the industrialization of Czechoslovakia during the between-the-wars period. They owned and operated a range of textile factories, sugar refineries and cement works within the territory of the former Austria-Hungary Monarchy. The factories for woollen fabrics in Brno and nearby Svitávka, where the Löw-Beers had two family villas (the so-called, Small Villa was built at the instigation of Grete's father Alfred Löw-Beer according to a project by Josef Nebehostený in the year 1906) ranked among the most significant of these. Grete Löw-Beer married the industrialist Hans Weiss in the year 1922 after interrupting her studies of economics in Vienna. Grete spent the majority of her less than happy marriage, which fell apart after six years, in Germany. Here she also made an acquaintance with contemporary art and architecture. “I would often visit the house which Mies van der Rohe built for the art trader Perls, at that time inhabited by the art historian Eduard Fuchs. The house was built in a conventional fashion, however, thanks to the trio of glazed doors the living area was opened up to the garden. It also had a clear division of the various living and dwelling spheres. I had also been greatly impressed by the housing estate in Weissenhof.”