A vivid company biography of leading furniture manufacturer Walter Knoll based on its formative figures Wilhelm, Hans, and Walter Knoll, and most recently, Markus Benz. Walter Knoll, the book, charts the one-and-a-half-century-old history of this remarkable furniture dynasty, tracing the evolution of its designs in relation to key cultural and historical developments. When the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles was recently bought by the Federal Republic of Germany and transformed into a representative "transatlantic meeting place," it was Walter Knoll furnishings that defined its interior design and showcased German creativity and performance in arts and business. Based in Herrenberg, near Stuttgart, the 150-year-old furniture business is one of the most successful furniture companies of the modern era and a global leader in high-end furnishing manufacturing. Walter Knoll's impressively long history dates back to Wilhelm Knoll, the founding father of the Knoll dynasty, who first set up a leather shop in Stuttgart in 1865. Knoll rose from being a cobbler to the court purveyor to the House of Wurttemberg. When his sons, Willy and Walter, took over the company in 1907, they began producing chairs - introducing the first club armchair to Germany and becoming the industry's first exporter. Their advances marked a revolution in upholstered furniture. After founding his own company in the 1920s, Walter Knoll was a breakout sensation in the avant-garde interior design world with a landmark exhibition at the Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, under the direction of the Mies van der Rohe, in 1927. His son, Hans Knoll, went to the U.S. in the 1930s and himself founded his own company, Knoll Inc., and with it, re-wrote design history. In 1993, Markus Benz, the son of Rolf Benz, joined the Knoll ranks, continuing the successful cooperation with internationally-renowned architects and designers. This fascinating company story shows how the Stuttgart area, one of the strongest economic regions in the world, was also a wellspring of modern design and culture.

Braun products have been shown more frequently at exhibitions than those of any other comparable company. Some people find that they reflect basic human values such as authenticity and integrity. For others, they are the very incarnation of German perfectionism. Braun is not merely a trademark; it stands for an all-encompassing concept. For the last five decades, this concept has spawned innovative products with an unprecedented regularity that begs to be explained -- especially as the era spanned by the history of Braun design is not exactly one characterised by continuity. Instead, the second half of the 20th century witnessed a dramatic change in living conditions. Prosperity and greater ease entered our daily lives, but also widespread disorientation and alienation. It is to the credit of those who set the Braun design project in motion that they were able to counteract this feeling of alienation -- which manifested itself to them not least in poorly designed objects of daily use -- with a vision of design reform. There had already been attempts made along these lines. What was new was that a commercial enterprise spearheaded the movement. Also new was the systematic approach, the application of design principles to modern products and the innovative dynamic thus triggered. Finally, the considerable commercial success this design project enjoyed was likewise a revelation. All of this led the company to establish a design department that was not merely an appendage, but rather an active decision-maker in the development of products from the initial idea to realisation. This is how Braun and design became synonymous.