Gebrüder Thonet Vienna Gmbh (GTV), Valter Cagna (design dept.)

Michael Thonet (1796-1871) and his five sons were the most successful furniture manufacturers of the industrial era. Invited by Austrian Chancellor Metternich, who had seen his products at the Exhibition of the Society of Friends of the Arts in Koblenz, to develop his patent in Austria, in 1842 Michael Thonet left Boppard, Germany, to settle in Vienna, where in 1853 he founded the company "Gebrüder Thonet" with the involvement of his five sons.

In the capital of the Habsburg Empire, Michael Thonet moved from the technique of glued laminated wood to that of steam-bent rods, that is, an industrial chemical and mechanical process. Thanks to this innovation, he began producing wooden furniture offering a collection of elegant yet rational forms, through a process that allowed large-scale production.

By 1911, the Gebrüder Thonet catalogue featured 980 different models. After the end of the Second World War, independent production units were established in various countries. More recently, Gebrüder Thonet Vienna has developed its business between tradition and innovation, continuity and renewal, creating a wide-ranging production programme whose primary aim is to recover, in the form of re-editions, a series of historic pieces originally created by Gebrüder Thonet.

The name Gebrüder Thonet Vienna embodies the very idea of contemporary furnishing.