Molded Plywood Chairs 
M 
Sessel Chair SE 42 
Entwurf Design: Egon Eiermann, Karlsruhe, 1950 
Ausführung Execution: Wilde + Spieth, Esslingen, um ca. 1960; Schichtholz, 
gebogen, Sperrholz, Hartgummi Laminated wood, bent, plywood, rubber; 
Lippisches Landesmuseum, Detmold 
Sessel Chair 404 
Entwurf Design: Stefan Diez, München Munich, 2007 
Ausführung Execution: Thonet Frankenberg, um ca. 201 2; Schichtholz, 
gebogen, Sperrholz Laminated wood, bent, plywood; MAK H 3742/2013; 
Schenkung Donation Thonet Frankenberg 
Following the invasion of the German Wehr 
macht in Austria, the Jewish-born Leopold 
Pilzer, majority owner of Thonet Mundus and 
owner of the international trademark rights, fled 
to the United States in 1938. There he ac 
quired three existing furniture factories in 
Statesville (NC), York (PA), and Sheyboygan 
(Wl), which were partially converted for the 
production of bentwood. 1 Underthe manage 
ment of Pilzer's stepson Bruno Weilt, who also 
designed his own models, the American 
Thonet Company began with the production of 
chairs made of laminated wood. The series 
“Bentply Collection,” which was introduced in 
1950, was very successful and included not 
only Bruno Weill's designs, but also those of 
Walter Gropius and Joe Atkinson. “In a short 
time the distinguished Thonet Bentply Collec 
tion became the preferred source for the Col 
lege, university and health care markets." 2 The 
models were based on the Contemporary fur 
niture designs of the architect and designer 
couple Charles and Ray Eames, but achieved 
the quality of these role models neither in for 
mal nor in technological terms. After the great 
international breakthrough that the Eames' ex- 
perienced with their organically shaped ply 
wood furniture in the mid-1940s, the architect 
Egon Eiermann also approached these forms 
with his molded plywood chairs in around 
1950 in Germany. In 2007, the designer Stefan 
Diez once again took on the theme of the er- 
gonomically shaped seat for the Thonet mod- 
el 404 made of molded plywood and laminated 
wood. The bent legs and two wooden rails for 
connecting the backrest converge in a so- 
called node under the CNC-molded seat. 
1 Cf. Nina Stritzler, “Thonet: Modern Furniture since 1922” in: Exhib. 
Cat. Washington 1993: Against The Grain, 101-111: 106 f. 
2 Thonet Industries, Thonet an historical overview, Folder ca. 1987. 
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