Michael Thonet trained as a carpenter and cabinetmaker before opening his own furniture workshop in Boppard, Germany 1819. In 1830, Thonet made his first experiment with solid steam-bended wood and twelve years later he moved from Boppard to Vienna, Austria. In the new city, Thonet got a five-year royal patent to produce steam-bent wood while working in the workshop of Viennese furniture producer List.
Thonet opened his own workshop in Vienna in 1849 from where he in the following year designed chairs for Daum café. The 1850’s became Thonet’s most prolific. At the world fair in London 1851, he received a bronze medal for his furniture design. The success in London spurred Thonet to open a sales office in Vienna the following year, while also receiving a second patent for bent solid wood. In 1853 Thonet transferred ownership of the company to his sons under the name Gebrüder Thonet that two years later participated in the Paris world’s fair which led to their first orders overseas. In 1856 Thonet established his first furniture plant in Korichan, Moravia and was given Austrian citizenship and a new patent.
In 1859 Michael Thonet designed the iconic chair model No.14 which is said to be the worlds best selling chair, produced in over 50 million copies until today.
Michael Thonet passed away in 1871 at the age of 75. In the aftermath of World War II, Gebrüder Thonet lost all of its production facilities in the Eastern Bloc states through expropriation, and the sales office at Vienna's Stephansplatz had been destroyed during the war. From 1945 to 1953, Georg Thonet, the great grandson of company founder, Michael Thonet, rebuilt the completely destroyed facilities in Frankenberg, Germany where Thonet GmbH's head office and production facilities remain until today.
In 1976 Gebrüder Thonet was divided into a German (Gebrüder Thonet) and an Austrian company (Thonet Vienna). The two companies are independent of each other.
