Historicism and the Gründerzeit

Bentwood chairs by the million, museums of applied art and a new empire that wanted to show its wealth.

Thonet's chair No. 14 of 1859 sold in millions. In 1864 the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry, today the MAK, was founded in Vienna. Gottfried Semper wrote about how materials and techniques shape style.

After German unification in 1871 came the Gründerzeit, a time of rapid growth and overloaded interiors in the Renaissance Revival. WMF was founded in 1880 and Steiff the same year; in Switzerland the soldier's knife for the army came in 1891.