Kohn Jacob & Joseph Biography
Jacob & Josef Kohn - J. & J. Kohn - is a renowned Austro-Hungarian furniture manufacturer, as well as interior designer founded in Vienna in 1849. Jacob Kohn started the company successfully in 1849, initially specializing in the production of timber for construction. However, in 1867 he joined the expertise of his son Josef Kohn and directed the company towards furniture production. Thanks to its branches in Berlin, Paris, London and Hamburg, Kohn became one of the leading furniture manufacturers in the Austro-Hungarian Empire starting in 1882, emerging as a major competitor of the Thonet company. By 1904, the company boasted an impressive catalog of 407 furniture models and employed over 6,000 people. A significant moment in the history of Jacob & Josef Kohn is represented by the collaboration with the artists of the Wiener Werkstätte movement, which began in 1905. Thanks to the cooperation with artists such as Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser and Adolf Loos, Kohn created many works of 'art.
However, in 1914, at the instigation of banker Leopold Pilzer and Credit Anstalt, the company merged with Mundus AG, giving rise to Kohn-Mundus. Subsequently, in 1922, Pilzer, the majority shareholder, merged the structure with Thonet, creating Kohn-Mundus-Thonet. In 1931, due to the bankruptcy of Credit Anstalt, Pilzer reacquired all the shares owned by the bank within the consortium. In 1936, with the rise of the Nazis to power, Pilzer moved the corporate headquarters to Switzerland and consolidated the subsidiaries in the United States. In 1937, due to the Nazi expropriation policy, Pilzer was forced to sell his remaining shares to Thonet and had to exile himself to the United States, leading to the disappearance of the Kohn brand. Today, works from the Kohn House are exhibited in numerous prestigious museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Barcelona Museum of Design, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
