Modern Practicality: The “Utility Style” 
Otto Wagner most likely entrusted his co- 
worker and former Student Marcel Kämmerer 
with the actual drafting of his bentwood furni- 
ture designs for the furnishing of the Postal 
Savings Bank in Vienna (1904-06). 1 Among 
these pieces of furniture-developed of 
course under Wagner’s responsibility and 
leadership-there are various types of arm- 
chairs, chairs and stools, as well as shelves 
and serving tables whose functionality and 
lightness are distinguished by their clear lines 
and transparency and which therewith con- 
form to the Nutz-Stil [Utility Style] propagated 
by Wagner. 2 The decoratively used aluminum 
cover plates and fittings of the furniture refer 
to the building fapade, which Wagner had giv- 
en the expression of the Machine Age through 
the equally ornamental and functional use of 
aluminum-covered iron bolts. For the Thonet 
and Kohn Companies, the furnishing of the 
Postal Savings Bank was an economically 
lucrative major project: In Order not to play off 
the competitors against each other, the Order 
for the production of bentwood furniture was 
issued to both Companies in 1906. 3 However, 
the serial production of the models was later 
given exclusively to Thonet, which also includ- 
ed some of Kammerer's own designs in its pro 
gram: These are mainly based on constructive 
and formal elements similar to those in the 
Postal Savings Bank furniture. 4 
1 Cf. lain Boyd Whyte, Emil Hoppe, Marcel Kämmerer, Otto Schönthal, 
Berlin 1989, 47. 
2 Otto Wagner, Einige Skizzen, Projekte und ausgeführte Bauwerke, 
vol. 1, Vienna 1889. 
3 The cost estimates for these Orders from the Austrian Postal Savings 
Bank have been in the MAK under the inventory number Kl 23280 
since 2018. 
4 Cf. Jirf Uhlir, Vom Wiener Stuhl zum Architektenmöbel, Vienna, i.a. 
2009, 142 f. See also Paul Asenbaum et al., Otto Wagner, Vienna/ 
Salzburg 1984, as well as Christian Witt-Dörring, Otto Wagner 
Möbel, Vienna 1991. 
Servante Side Table, aus der Postsparkasse, Wien 
from the Postal Savings Bank, Vienna 
Entwurf Design: Otto Wagner, Wien Vienna, 1906 
Ausführung Execution: Gebrüder Thonet, Bistritz Bystrice, 1906; 
Buche, massiv und gebogen, Aluminium Beech, solid and bent, aluminum; 
BAWAG P.S.K. 
Tisch Nr. 40 Table No. 40 
Entwurf Design: Marcel Kämmerer, Wien Vienna, 1905 
Ausführung Execution: Gebrüder Thonet, Bistritz Bystrice, um ca. 1910; 
Buche, massiv und gebogen, Messing Beech, solid and bent, brass; 
MAK H 2276/1974 
185