1990 West Germany adopts the GDR. – The firms Dedon and Zeitraum take two different approaches to the same principle, revisiting an old material and making it modern. While Dedon ennobles artificial fibre, Zeitraum takes a fresh look at wooden furniture, dusting off an old German myth. – The computer goes mobile. The laptop takes shape.

 

1991 Konstantin Grcic opens a studio in his hometown of Munich and becomes Germany’s premier designer. He launches intense collaboration with the company ClassiCon founded one year earlier. – With  the high-tech Arco tap from Phoenix Design and its retro counterpart Tara (1992) by Sieger Design, the bathroom becomes a new designer playground. Manufacturers successful on this terrain, such as Dornbracht, Duravit, Hansgrohe, Keuco and Villeroy & Boch, increasingly become full-service suppliers.

 

1992 Swabian designer Nils Holger Moormann and Bavarian Hubert Matthias Sanktjohanser join forces to establish their own company and, in the process, their own domestic ethos. One century after the emergence of “room art”, it is once again the outsiders who strive for an alternative to the pretentious bourgeois style. – Karl Friedrich Schinkel already realized back in the mid-19th century that the garden deserves its own brand of modern furniture. Fischer Möbel takes up this tradition anew.

 

1993 Carpet Concept weaves ideas into its carpets. – The Virage washstand by Reiner Moll turns the sink into a co-ordinated room element.

 

1994 Endless Shelf by Werner Aisslinger unites simplicity and systematic planning with the idea of infinity. The shelf system concept forms a canvas for the exercise of the typical German virtues. This is demonstrated in the years to come by designs such as Plattenbau from Kaether & Weise, Freddy from Hertel & Klarhoefer, Mein_Back from Magazin and Screen from Performa. – The office furniture system Confair from Wilkhahn is at least as flexible as the modern office worker. – When the old AEG is swallowed up by the Swedish Electrolux group, no one yet labels it globalization. – Peter Schreyer becomes head designer at Audi and gives the brand an edge through up-to-the-minute design. – Everybody soon knows what email is.

 

1996 The 1990s are founding years, in terms of design for living as in other matters. e15, the first German furniture manufacturer to get its start in the new design mecca of London, debuts with Backenzahn (Molar). It belongs to a group of young companies that have established themselves on the fringes of the industry and take a fresh view of design. But perfectionism still forms a common denominator. Perhaps, if a certain degree of unity can be achieved, the roots for a third wave of German domestic modernization can be found. Starting things off are brands such as elmarflötotto, Nils Holger Moormann, Performa, Sanktjohanser and Zeitraum. Other interesting projects soon join in, including Jonas & Jonas, Kaether & Weise, Raumwerk and Leise. – Stilwerk opens in Hamburg, Germany’s first department store for design.

1998 The fact that even a classical material like glass still harbours a great deal of design potential is demonstrated by no-frills designs like the ingenious pullout table 8950 by Norbert Beck and the Screen family of lamps by Peter Maly. – Two American students invent an invisible “engine” by the name of Google.