This memory is significant insofar as it once again visualizes the barriers 
between high art and trivial culture, which could not satisfactorily be dis- 
solved in the concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, which had become fash- 
ionable around 1900, and which gradually began to decline in the course 
of the 20th Century. 28 It wasn't until the 1960s, when with the images of 
Andy Warhol even tin cans-for Sigfried Giedion the epitome of industrial 
“full mechanization” 29 -entered the art museums, that inexpensive series 
products that had proven to be practical and durable and which had 
been able to assert themselves against passing fashions and taste dog- 
mas were recognized as good design. In this context, Thonet’s industrial 
products were no longer seen as cheap and ubiquitous Commodities, 
but as incunabula of furniture history and valuable cultural assets: They 
became worthy of art and Collection. 30 
Already in the time of Adolf Loos, who had his own chair design produced 
by the competitor J. & J. Kohn in 1898, the name Thonet was metonymic 
for bentwood furniture-just as the name Kleenex is representative of 
paper handkerchiefs, and Ohropax Stands for earplugs and Scotchtape 
for transparent adhesive tape (in English speaking countries) today. In 
fact, the importance of Thonet as a model for Contemporary industrial 
design cannot be overestimated; Hardly any description of design history 
does not mention the name Thonet, hardly any larger Collection of modern 
furniture does not include at least one Thonet chair. The fact that seating 
furniture-in particular chairs-is now undisputedly the leading medium 
in furniture has also contributed to the company’s success story. Until 
the end of the 19th Century, it was the cabinets on which precious and 
exotic materials were processed and new craftsmanship and processing 
techniques were tested, but it was the modern seating furniture that, due 
to its Orientation on the body, slowly took the place of these traditional 
pieces of luxury furniture: It formed the new field of experimentation that 
promoted innovative social attitudes and approaches, and expressed the 
mental state of the times through the manner of sitting. The Thonet prod 
ucts, which were widely used in coffee houses, were groundbreaking in 
this respect and have had an impact on generations. 
Correspondingly, this publication-which accompanies the exhibition in 
the MAK-also focuses mainly on seating furniture: It has always been 
the core competence of the Company. Beyond the chronological overview, 
bentwood furniture is consistently embedded in the technological, typo- 
logical, aesthetic, and historical development of modern furniture design 
for the first time. By comparing several objects, it is not only the innovations 
and development Steps in the field of bentwood technology that can be 
made clear, but also the correspondences and divergences with other 
areas of furniture production. Thonet’s furniture has had a great impact 
on design history, but it has also taken account of the taste of the times 
and taken on foreign influences. Last but not least, it is important to point 
out the caesuras that resulted in the numerous reorientations and repo- 
sitionings in the 200-year history of the Company. The exhibition and cat- 
alog thus go beyond the hitherto customary approach of focusing exclu- 
sively on bentwood furniture, and show, for the first time, the central im 
portance of the Thonet brand in the context of general furniture design. 
The MAK has an excellent furniture collection and one of the world’s 
largest Stocks of bentwood furniture; nevertheless, the realization of this 
demanding Compilation was possible only through the Support and loans 
from institutions, businesses, and private parties, for which I would like 
28 See also Kirk Varnedoe / Adam Gopnik, High & Low. Modern Art and Populär Culture, New York, 
1990. 
29 Cf. Giedion 1982 (as in note 23), 63. 
30 In addition to the bentwood furniture, this also applies to the tubulär Steel furniture that the Company 
produced starting in the late 1920s, even if it-above all because of the much higher sales prices- 
was not as widely distributed. 
19