Chair EW1192
The Unseen Design Classic
Synopsis
Poster © Sara Bock
At some point, it was simply everywhere. In kitchens and canteens, on terraces and in party basements, at grandma's and at school. The EW 1192 was the most widespread kitchen chair in the GDR – and yet nobody knew it by name.
It had everything a good chair needs: a clean form, surprising comfort, four legs that don't wobble. Sturdy enough for decades of family life, plain enough to never draw attention – and somehow beautiful enough to never get thrown away. As the chair-making industry in the Erzgebirge mountains faded away, it stayed in people's living rooms. It kept resurfacing at flea markets, without anyone quite knowing where it had come from.
That question wouldn't let go of woodworking professor Jacob Strobel. He started digging – consulting experts, tracking down eyewitnesses, collecting stories. He found families who can tell fifty years of their lives through this chair. He discovered that the EW 1192 was born in the Entwurfsbüro Waldheim – a collective led by designer Horst Heyder that created furniture for industrial production from 1954 to 1989. And he built new prototypes, dreaming of the day the chair might go back into production. This time under the name "Horst".
Mark Michel and TELESKOP followed this journey: from flea market find to museum piece, from forgotten everyday object to rediscovered design classic.
"What emerged is an enchanting 35-minute film about the chair and Strobel's tenacity, told with great empathy for the people who share their life memories, and with poetic beauty — the filmmakers place the chair in the middle of the landscape, in front of houses, along an avenue, capturing it in still images, giving it a surprisingly powerful presence."
— Katharina Leuoth, Freie Presse, 6 September 2025Teaser
Watch the Film
The full film is available free of charge on the digital museum platform Voices of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden:
Filmstills
