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FORUM FIRMENJUBILÄUM • COMPANY ANNIVERSARY

W ith maximum intuition for the material, the technical feasibility and the design-
specific zeitgeist of the industrial revolution, in 1859 the German-Austrian car-
penter and company founder Michael Thonet invented the minimalist bentwood Chair
No. 14 which can be disassembled into its parts. Enthusiastic about the invention of the
first steel cantilever chairs, in the 1920s Thonet contacted his contemporaries at the
Bauhaus: Analogous to the New Objectivity, a new generation of young architects prior-
itized the function of their furniture. Already famous for his innovative power and the
development of the modular principle in manufacturing furniture, Thonet was the ideal
partner for the designers who aimed at typification in architecture and furnishing. Mar-
cel Breuer, the carpenter and architect trained at the Bauhaus, was one of the first to be
inspired by the handlebar of his new Adler bicycle and, in 1925, designed the present-
day Thonet B 9 set of tables found in several Bauhaus buildings. In 1926, he founded the
Standard-Möbel company in Berlin for producing and selling tubular-steel furniture
taken over by Thonet in 1929. In the same year, the Dutch architect Mart Stam designed
the first cantilever chair for his pregnant wife. This revolutionary invention was to fun-
damentally change furniture manufacture.

Johann-Strauss-Kapelle auf dem Kaffeehausstuhl Nr. 14 • Johann-Strauss orchestra on No. 14 coffeehouse chairs The cantilever chair – a pioneering invention

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe took up Stam’s idea and further developed a version with a
semicircular, dynamic contour: The first cantilever chair, Thonet S 533, was born. In
1932, took up the manufacture of tubular-steel furniture in Frankenberg. Breuer
designed additional cantilever chairs for Thonet, also the S 32. With a seat and back of
bentwood and Viennese caning, this charismatic combination of well-tried and new
material is legendary: To this day, it is considered the top selling piece of tubular furni-
ture. Thonet’s cooperation with renowned architects such as Mart Stam, Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, Le Corbusier or Charlotte Perriand turned out to be highly
successful. Their tubular-steel furniture designs, among them also the first cantilever
chairs S 33 and S 43 by Mart Stam and the S 64 and S 35 models by Marcel Breuer, are
today considered milestones in the history of architecture and design. In Germany,
Breuer’s und Mies van der Rohe’s designs are copyrighted as works of applied art.
Thonet early on secured the rights to them and keeps them to this day. The furniture is
made with plenty of expertise and – the traditional way – by hand. When one looks back
300 years, Thonet experimented in the first workshop in Boppard am Rhein with novel
bentwood techniques. First projects of bent laminated wood originated around 1830.
Fürst von Metternich recognized Thonet’s talent and brought him and his family to Vien-
na in 1942 to furnish the Palais Liechtenstein, the Palais Schwarzenberg and Café Daum.

Chair No. 14, the first suitable for industrial manufacture
Exportschlager: 36 Exemplare des Nr. 14 in einer Transportkiste • Export hit: 36 items of No. 14 in a shipping crate
In 1849, Michael Thonet set up his own business together with his four sons. Chair No.
15, the so-called “Viennese coffeehouse chair” made him famous. Bending beechwood
for the first time made the industrial production of this chair possible: It could be disas-
sembled into all the individual parts and thus produced in separated steps, was space-
saving and easy to package and export all over the globe: Thonet not last revolutionized
the price of furniture and turned No. 14 into a popular mass product. At the same time,
it reflected what he demanded of the production of contemporary seating culture:
material savings, sustainability, minimalist design and industrial producibility. Many
pieces of bentwood furniture followed: Rocking Chair No. 1 from 1860, the No. 18 and
No. 56 models around 1900, the elegant No. 209 preferred by Le Corbusier or the art-
nouveau chair No. 247 by Otto Wagner. In 1912, Thonet produced and sold a record two
million different articles worldwide. Already in 1857 and according to their father’s
plans, Thonet’s sons had the first of the later five East-European furniture factories built
in Koritschan. In 1889, the last factory in Frankenberg was added, today’s company
headquarters. After the expropriation of all the East-European factories and the
destruction of the Frankenberg factory in the Second World War, Georg Thonet, the
great-grandson of the company founder, rebuilt the factory in Frankenberg by 1953 and
again looked for cooperation with innovative designers. The list of those who worked
and still work for Thonet in the last 60 years is long and high-quality and includes the
company design team. Today, CEO Brian Boyd, Creative Director Norbert Ruf and COO
Michael Erdelt manage the company in Frankenberg. As partners and sales representa-
tives, Claus, Philipp and Peter Thonet in the fifth and Felix Thonet in the sixth genera-
tion are actively involved in the company history.

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