Thonet
Thonet – a milestone in industrial design and the beginning of the modern furniture industry
Thonet is one of the oldest family-run furniture manufacturers in the world and made history with its revolutionary production of coffee house furniture and its iconic chair No. 14 (today 214).
Company history
Thonet's success story began back in 1819 in Boppard am Rhein in Germany, where Michael Thonet ran his bentwood workshop. There, in 1830, he became the first to develop a process for bending solid wood using steam – a revolution in the wood industry. A metal strap limits the stretching of the outer zones, while the inner zone is compressed more strongly. Beforehand, the wood is made soft and pliable with steam. The result: the outside doesn't splinter, and the wood stays permanently bent. For the wood industry, this innovation meant much more efficient work. Wood waste was reduced to a minimum, and new shapes became possible.
In 1842, Prince von Metternich became aware of Thonet's work and brought him and his family to Vienna. Thonet perfected his bentwood technique in the 1850s. In 1853, he handed his company over to his sons, and from then on it was called "Gebrüder Thonet". The company achieved its great breakthrough in 1859 with the Viennese coffee house chair – chair No. 14. To this day, the chair is often described as the most successful industrial product of all time, and Michael Thonet is regarded as a pioneer of industrial design. He marked the beginning of the modern furniture industry.
One cubic metre of a shipping crate could hold 36 dismantled No. 14 chairs, including screws, so they could be shipped all over the world at low cost. They were assembled on site. By 1930 alone, 50 million chairs had been produced, conquering the coffee houses of Europe's major cities. The No. 14 chair also changed the look of public spaces in cities. Heavy upholstered furniture was replaced by light, graceful bistro chairs that could be used flexibly and stored away to save space.
Steel furniture joins the range
From Vienna, the brothers expanded the Thonet empire, building factories in various European countries. During this time, they also received support and backing from Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary. However, the company's patriotic loyalty to the emperor led it into crisis at the end of the First World War. In 1921, the Thonet brothers therefore decided to merge with the Jewish merchant Leopold Pilzer from Hungary and his Mundus public limited company, making them the largest furniture manufacturer in the world at the time.
It was also Pilzer who introduced steel furniture into the Thonet range. Thonet recognised the potential of bent steel furniture early on and secured the rights to designs by numerous Bauhaus figures such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Mart Stam and Le Corbusier. Marcel Breuer's cantilever chair for Thonet has since been regarded as one of the most important innovations of the last century. The clean look of the steel furniture, considered a milestone in design history, was an expression of a new everyday culture and architecture known as "New Objectivity". At that time, Thonet was not only the market leader for bentwood furniture, but also established itself as number 1 in the steel furniture industry.
In Frankenberg in Germany – built in 1889 and therefore Thonet's newest factory – the company still develops innovative products today that are designed to last and stand out for their quality materials and timeless design language. The factory of today's Thonet GmbH combines state-of-the-art production technology with specialist know-how gathered over more than two centuries of company history.
Sustainability
Products by the long-established company Thonet are known for their durability. According to the manufacturer, they are designed to have as little impact on the environment as possible, both in production and at the end of their life. Before new products are launched, close attention is paid to sustainability, environmental friendliness and the recyclability of the materials, which is already at least 95%.
Thonet sources 100% of its electricity from renewable, sustainable energy sources. The company also invests in solvent recycling systems, working to reduce its ecological footprint. The wood it uses comes from sustainably managed forests and is PEFC-certified.
Thonet has been awarded the Green Globe certificate for 10 years in a row, making it a Platinum member of the organisation, which assesses companies' sustainability in terms of environmental friendliness, social responsibility and economic viability.
