Rural Furniture 
After the collapse of the Danube Monarchy in 
1918, Austria had to Orient itself more strongly 
than betöre to the Alps, which accounted for 
well over half of the national territory of the 
newly founded republic. This was also reflected 
in the design of furniture. In the course of the 
construction of new buildings which were nec- 
essary for the growing tourism branch, people 
repeatedly reflected on the Alpine tradition of 
the parlor, which was, however, understood in 
a quite modern way by some Contemporary ar- 
chitects such as Clemens Holzmeister, Franz 
Baumann, and Wilhelm Stigler. After the Sec- 
ond World War, such down-to-earth modernity 
could even be claimed for the national public 
image: At the 1958 World Fair in Brussels, 
Austria presented itself with a progressive- 
modern pavilion designed by the architect Karl 
Schwänzer, which is considered one of the key 
buildings of Austrian post-war architecture. 
The modernist inferior of the Expo Pavilion, 
which included a cinema and a recording Stu 
dio, was complemented by a restaurant, whose 
furnishings deliberately made reference to the 
rustic facilities of parlors in rural alpine inns 
and wine taverns-and thus resorted to the 
stereotype of a specifically Austrian “cozi- 
ness” 1 . In around 1960, Gebrüder Thonet also 
incorporated sturdy, solid wood alpine furniture 
into their program in Austria, linder the title 
Ländlicher Style [Rural Style], the Company 
launched a new product line, which included 
the L 205 model shown here. 2 
1 Cf. Sebastian Hackenschmidt, “Die Möbel aus Karls Schwänzers 
Pavillon der Weltausstellung in Brüssel 1958. Eine Spurensuche im 
Museum für angewandte Kunst in Wien” in: Ulrike Matzer / Stefan 
Oläh (eds.), Karl Schwänzer - Spuren / Traces, Basel 2019, 101- 
109. 
2 Cf. Gebrüder Thonet Catalog No. W 608 “Ländlicher Stil," ca. 1960.