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Welcome to a world of craftsmanship, quality and beautiful design. To nearly 150 years of Danish history and a heritage shaped by collaborations with some of the biggest and most innovative designers in Denmark and the world. This is the story of Fritz Hansen. Of four generations of family leadership, of global growth, and of an enduring commitment to delivering groundbreaking modern design that enhances spaces - and people's experiences of them. First generation: the making of Fritz Hansen It all began in 1872 with the visionary Fritz Hansen, who at 25 had just finished his apprenticeship and could call himself both a joiner and a cabinetmaker. The young man had big plans. He obtained a trade licence and moved from the small Danish town of Nakskov to Copenhagen, where he started a workshop on the second floor of a small downtown street with only two workbenches, a wood lathe and a band saw. Diligent as Fritz Hansen was, he quickly grew his business, and in 1887 bought a house in the Christianshavn neighbourhood in the centre of Copenhagen. Here, he established a furniture production company in his own name, adding & Co shortly after for his then-13-year-old son Christian, who he hoped would one day take the helm. Fritz Hansen was known to be quick yet thorough in his work, and in the flourishing, constantly expanding furniture company, he designed and manufactured tailor-made pieces for the modern consumer. He created chairs and sofas made from wood and iron, and was innovative in his work, taking on such tasks as redesigning the Victorian curved sofa in a thin iron setting, inspired by ladies' crinolines. He made mirror frames and used a special woodturning method for staircase balusters, chairs and sofa legs. His style was extremely detailed - almost decorative - and clearly inspired by the historicist style of the late 1800s, which had become fashionable in European furniture design. The furniture grew very popular, and foreigners travelled to Denmark to buy from Fritz Hansen. With a catalogue of over 40 pages, they could choose from a series of sofas, chaises longues, easy chairs, mirrors and wood-turned pieces. The furniture was then upholstered with the fabric of their choice. Although Fritz Hansen made a good living designing historicist furniture, he refused to bring it into his own home - a point he also made clear when decorating his office. Instead of cramming it with the decorative pieces his customers so loved, he designed a simple, solid wood chair with a leather seat for himself. The chair was with him for most of his life, and his son Christian E. Hansen kept it with him for all of his. By 1898, Fritz Hansen & Co had grown to 50 staff, and Christian E. Hansen suggested moving part of the production out of town while keeping the house in Christianshavn. Fritz Hansen bought a big piece of land in the small town of Allered, next to a forest and close to the railway - a perfect location considering that he once again had big plans that now included opening his own lumber mill. His decision was a sign of the industrialisation taking off in Denmark at the time. While business continued to boom, Fritz Hansen's health began to fail him. Shortly before the end of the century, he turned the company over to Christian, who was then 25 years old - just as his father had been when he had started out. Fritz Hansen died three years later, in 1902, at just 55. Second generation: a new balance When Christian E. Hansen took over Fritz Hansen & Co, the company was known to be a reliable manufacturer of quality furniture, but did not stand out from the crowd. Christian E. Hansen's training as both a joiner and an architect, however, made it quite natural for him to begin collaborating with fellow architects: a decision that elevated the company's position in the market and secured its future. His first collaboration kicked off in 1905 with the accomplished Danish architect Martin Nyrop. In the beginning of the 20th century, it was not unusual for architects to also design the interiors of buildings, and Nyrop went to Fritz Hansen to get furniture manufactured for the Copenhagen Town Hall. Before Christian E. Hansen knew it, Fritz Hansen & Co was collaborating with a number of the most important Danish architects of the day, including Thorvald Jorgensen and Kai Gottlob, and producing furniture for the Danish Parliament at Christiansborg Palace, the Frederiksberg Courthouse, and the Supreme Court, among others. Like his father, Christian E. Hansen had a reputation for being quick and diligent. And precise: every morning at 7:00 am sharp, he met his staff at the lumber mill in Lillered, and at exactly 10:12 am, he boarded the train to Copenhagen and headed to his office in Christianshavn. Should he ever be delayed, the 10:12 train waited for him. In 1830, the German-Czechoslovakian company Thonet-Mundus had invented a new production method where wood was steamed and then cooled off in an iron mould so it kept its shape. As a result of their expertise and skilled marketing techniques, by 1912, Thonet-Mundus had reached its zenith with an annual output of two million pieces of furniture. Thonet-Mundus experienced great success with its steam-bent Vienna chairs by the groundbreaking designer Michael Thonet - while keeping the production details a company secret. This irritated Christian E. Hansen, who decided to uncover the mystery behind the technique. Within a few years, Fritz Hansen & Co was the only Danish company technologically advanced enough to produce steam- bent wood chairs. For Fritz Hansen & Co, this technique evolved into crafting furniture in laminate wood, which made the pieces light, practical, strong and profitable to mass-produce. The steam-bent and laminate wood furniture was defining for the company's future DNA - and for its major collaboration, not to mention enormous success, with Arne Jacobsen. In the 1930s, esteemed designers such as Frits Schlegel and Magnus Stephensen were creating chairs for Fritz Hansen using these techniques. To communicate that the designs were not replicas of Thonet's, they were named Fritz Hansens DANstole (an abbreviation meaning "Danish chairs"). Fritz Hansen was the only Danish manufacturer to work with steam-bent wood, and the DANstole became the company's primary furniture product, with 15,000 chairs produced each year. In 1934, the company had so refined the technique that it received exclusive rights to manufacture Thonet's design in steam-bent wood and steel furniture for the Danish market. Third generation: an era of great innovation In 1932, on the company's 60th birthday, Christian E. Hansen's sons Poul Fritz Hansen and Soren Christian Hansen became co-directors. Poul was a trained cabinetmaker, Soren a joiner. Both had already influenced Fritz Hansen with their enthusiasm for the functionalism inspired by the Bauhaus School: an early industrial design aesthetic they had observed while travelling Europe, but one more or less unknown to Denmark at the time. Christian E. Hansen, however, was fond of this innovative, foreign style, and decided it was time for his sons to take over. While Seren Christian Hansen developed new products and became the face of the company, Poul Fritz Hansen managed production. The brothers played an important role in the production of steel chairs in Denmark and in introducing functionalism to Danish design. Working with some of the most important Danish architects of the day, they incorporated steel furniture techniques into steam-bent wood chairs. One of Poul Fritz Hansen and Soren Christian Hansen's key steel furniture collaborations was with another pair of brothers, Flemming and Mogens Lassen. Their designs were influenced by another great visionary of the day, the Bauhaus architect Mies van der Rohe, who himself designed steel furniture. While the Lassen brothers' furniture was not as functional as Mies van der Rohe's, theirs paired cool steel with an inviting and warm Danish aesthetic that Bauhaus furniture often lacked. Although Fritz Hansen's first steel furniture pieces had not appealed to Danish consumers, the Lassen brothers' designs proved successful. Frits Schlegel also designed steel furniture for Fritz Hansen, and at the Den Permanente exhibition in Copenhagen, he presented an easy chair in steel and beech to an audience that included the Danish Crown Prince, Prime Minister, and Minister of Trade, as well as key players of the Danish design and manufacturing industry. In the press, the wood and steel design was called "a sensation," and Fritz Hansen was credited with introducing this foreign furniture production method to Denmark. As Fritz Hansen continued to be deeply influenced by Bauhaus aesthetics and principles, the company also collaborated with foreign designers and architects. The Dutch architect Mart Stam, for instance, designed a chair that featured a solid wood frame, steel and rattan for the Danish company. In the 1930s, the entertainment industry also blossomed.