Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer (1902-1981), born in Hungary and trained at the Bauhaus by Walter Gropius from 1920-24, is heralded as having produced the first tubular steel armchair, his pieces pioneering the demand for tubular steel furniture throughout the 1920s and 1930s. When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925, Breuer designed furniture for the new campus and became head of the furniture workshop, a position that he held until 1928. Also in 1925, Breuer created the famous tubular steel Wassily chair, purportedly inspired both by constructivist aesthetics and by the handlebars of his new bike.

In 1928 he started a private practice in Berlin and produced his Cesca cantilever chair and Cesca stool, named after his daughter and probably inspired by Mart Stam and Mies Van der Rohe. Read more in our Journal post about the invention of the cantilever chair.

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