The round-shaped steel furniture as well as the tubular steel seats and armchairs from production in Waldeck in North Hesse are now considered design classics. They are still manufactured in small quantities at Berndorf under the name "Mauser - Furniture and Seating Culture", but their heyday was in northern Hesse after the war. Production that was important to the war effort was relocated there in 1944, which meant that Mauser had to stop its successful barrel and barrel production. After the end of the war, the second generation of Mauser sons had to realign production plans and began building furniture for office equipment again, after having already started in 1929. This is how the “Mauser Rundform program” came into being, which included, among other things, filing cabinets and various table programs. What they all had in common was that they were made predominantly from sheet steel and the shape was reminiscent of barrels. This made the furniture design icons in the mid-century modern style, and they are in great demand today. Matching seats and chairs were also made from tubular steel, now known as "swingers". From this production in Waldeck, the “Mauser Dragonfly” and the “Mauser Butterfly” became known as design pieces.
However, the history of the Mauser works began differently. The Swabian inventor Wilhelm Mauser, co-owner of the well-known rifle factories in Oberndorf, founded metal processing. He died young in 1882, when his son Alfons was just 10 years old. Alfons Mauser is considered the founder of the Mauser works and designer furniture production. He first learned in his uncle's factory and then went to England in 1891 and from there to the USA to explore new developments in weapon construction. In 1893 he returned, finished his apprenticeship and studied at the TH Stuttgart until 1896. However, his ideas were rejected by his uncle. So he founded his first steel goods factory in 1896 and began producing simple products such as fences, garden gates and steel grilles.
With the help of his father-in-law, who was an entrepreneur himself, Alfons Mauser moved his company headquarters to Cologne-Ehrenfeld. In addition to the “Zaunkönig” program, transport baskets for large glass bottles from the chemical industry were now produced. From this approach, Alfons Mauser developed airtight, resealable steel barrels, the “Mauser patent barrels,” which became an incredible economic success.
In the 1920s he expanded the company through acquisitions in Harburg, Neuwied and Herdecke. Later, production facilities were established in Brazil, Portugal and the Netherlands. In 1921 he also bought a factory in Waldeck, northern Hesse. He quickly became the largest employer in the region and even received an honorary doctorate as Dr.-Ing. Eh He died suddenly at the age of just 55, and so his five sons took over the works in 1927. In 1929, the idea of producing steel furniture was born at the Waldeck factory.
In 1930 the production of tubular steel chairs, the cantilever chairs, began. The stylistic proximity to the Bauhaus led to legal disputes with Mies van der Rohe and his competitor Thonet. The “Mauser round shape program” was a great economic success, as was the tubular steel seating.
In 1979, Mauser-Werke GmbH was renamed Mauser-Waldeck AG and received fresh funds for investments. However, the family sold the shares. There were many changes in ownership and associated product policy. In 2002 the company finally went bankrupt and was liquidated. The brand name was sold and lives on at Berndorf to this day. The furniture, which was produced from 1929 onwards, has now become sought-after design classics.
