Chrome and 
With its constructive possibilities and its cool 
elegance, the shiny chrome-plated tubulär Steel 
perfectly matched the design principles of 
Neue Sachlichkeit [New Objectivity]: The ma 
terial which was hardly ever used for furniture 
betöre 1925 did not lead one to think of the 
“cleared beech forests like a Thonet chair did,” 
rather, with its technoid-functionalist appear- 
ance it reminded one of a “constructed ma 
chine." 1 The early tubulär steel chairs were ini- 
tially lacquered or nickel-plated betöre chrome 
was used and received programmatic meaning: 
,,[T]he pipe should not just be metal, it should 
look like it, the more metallic, the better. Thus, 
the chrome plating soon became an easily un- 
derstandable style feature,” 2 Thonet Mundus 
reacted to tubulär steel fashion in the late 
1920s by entering the tubulär steel business 
itself, and in 1929 bought up Standard Möbel 
GmbH, and Desta in 1932. At the same time, 
they included new bentwood designs in their 
product ränge, the design vocabulary of which 
referred to the characteristic constructions of 
tubulär steel. In order to adapt the "bentwood 
chairs as home furniture” even more to the 
taste of the time, the Company decided to offer 
its furniture mainly in synthetic colored lacquer, 
whereby the wood structure was supposed to 
be completely concealed. 3 
1 Gert Seile, Design-Geschichte in Deutschland, Cologne 1987,160. 
2 Schuldt, “Zur Einführung“, in: Jan van Geest / Otakar Mäöel, Stühle 
aus Stahl, Cologne 1980, 7-52: 22. However, tubulär steel 
furniture was still available in many colors at Thonet in the 1930s. 
Cf. Alexander von Vegesack, Deutsche Stahlrohrmöbel, Munich 
1986, 23. 
3 Cf. “Bugholzsessel als Wohnungsmöbel," in: Thonet-Mundus 
Zentralanzeiger, No. 100, December 1929, 2-3. 
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Fauteuil Armchair A 64 F 
Entwurf Design: Adolf Gustav Schneck, Stuttgart, um ca. 1928 
Ausführung Execution: Thonet Mundus, um ca. 1928; Buche, massiv und 
gebogen, Sperrholz Beech, solid and bent, plywood; MAK H 2587-2/1979 
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