Gebrüder Thonet, or the Thonet Brothers, was a European furniture manufacturer. Three firms descended from the original company remain active today: Thonet GmbH in Germany, Thonet Vienna in Austria, and TON in the Czech Republic.
Gebrüder Thonet became especially known for its manufacture of bentwood furniture, for which it developed the first industrial-scale production processes. Bentwood furniture is the process of bending wood into curves whilst it is wet and pliable. The new methods replaced traditional craft skills in favor of machinery which enabled workers to produce accurate and repeatable bent components. Although steam bending had long been used for furniture such as Windsor chairs, these earlier techniques involved bending raw billets of wood that were later shaped to size. ThonetâÂÂs process, by contrast, allowed timber to be machined to a finished surface as dowel stock, steam-bent into shape, and used almost immediately as a component, requiring only trimming at the ends.
The company was founded by Michael Thonet in Vienna. In 1853, he transferred ownership of his firm to his sons under the new name Gebrüder Thonet. In 1856 the brothers expanded by opening a factory in KoryÃÂany. Over the following decades, five further production sites were established in Central Europe: Bystà Âice pod Hostýnem in 1861, Veþké Uherce in 1866, VsetÃÂn in 1867, Halenkov in 1867, and Radomsko in 1880.
The companyâÂÂs best-known design is the No. 14 chair, the iconic café chair of Paris. Designer Jasper Morrison described it as âÂÂrefined to the point where there is no way to improve it.âÂÂ
In 1921, Gebrüder Thonet merged with Mundus AG, becoming the worldâÂÂs largest furniture manufacturer. In 1938, the Thonet family bought back shares in the company.
After World War II, Thonet lost all production facilities in Eastern Bloc states through expropriation. Additionally, its sales office at ViennaâÂÂs Stephansplatz was destroyed. From 1945 to 1953, Georg Thonet, great-grandson of the founder, rebuilt new facilities in Frankenberg, Hesse, where Thonet GmbH remains headquartered today. Economic recovery came quickly, and the firm collaborated with leading designers. Over the following decades, collaborators included Egon Eiermann, Verner Panton, Pierre Paulin, Norman Foster, James Irvine, Piero Lissoni, Stefan Diez, Hadi Teherani, among others. The companyâÂÂs in-house design team continues to add new pieces to its portfolio.
In 1976, Gebrüder Thonet was divided into a German company (Gebrüder Thonet) and an Austrian company (Thonet Vienna). The two firms remain independent of each other.
In 2006, Gebrüder Thonet became Thonet GmbH. The company is currently managed by Thorsten Muck at its headquarters in Frankenberg/Eder, Germany. Michael ThonetâÂÂs descendants in the fifth and sixth generations remain involved as associates and sales partners. The companyâÂÂs collection includes bentwood furniture, tubular steel classics from the Bauhaus era, as well as contemporary designs by internationally known architects and designers.
In 1989, Thonet opened a museum on its company premises in Frankenberg, with 700 square metres of exhibition space showcasing historical pieces.
The Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna (MAK) houses a large collection of Thonet furniture. Its permanent exhibition presents 100 years of Thonet production, as well as work by the Kohn brothers and the Danhauser furniture factory. The Imperial Furniture Collection in Vienna also displays selected Thonet objects, including the Michael Thonet âÂÂrunning chairâ from 1843âÂÂ1848, made for the Stadtpalais Liechtenstein palace.
To mark the 200th anniversary of the company, the MAK presented a major exhibition of Thonet designs from December 2019 to September 2020, featuring items from its permanent collection.