Egon Eiermann

Egon Eiermann was a German architect whose post-war buildings — among them the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin — set much of the tone for West German modernism.

His furniture came out of the same instinct: build lightly, show the structure, use no more material than the job requires. The collaboration with Wilde + Spieth began with the SE 42 of 1949, a moulded beech plywood shell on slim metal legs that architects took to immediately.

The seat and back of the SE 42 were reused across the pieces that followed, including the SE 68 of 1951. The chairs remain in production, and the SE 42 is held in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.