The Swabian manufacturer that has been part of the Dutch Samas Group since 1999 grew large with the workhorses amongst chairs: the office swivel chair. The first one in Germany was built in 1920. It wasn’t until Martin Stoll junior founded his own company in the late 1970s, quickly presenting his model S – the first chair with a patented active pelvis support – that the chapter of design was opened in the southern Black Forest. The young businessman turned to Arno Votteler for help, who developed models for the company well into the 1990s. Their joint debut product – widely used for instance by German discounter Aldi as a cashiers’ chair – has been just as long-lived as that store chain. Other designers also contributed important models, including in the 1990s Matteo Thun of Switzerland (Collection L) and Swabia-based Reiner Moll (Collection K). For the managerial set, Martin Stoll offers the series Executive Office (by Albert Holz), a system exhibiting a minimalist geometry that is reminiscent of early Bauhaus constructivism. The most recent chair series, Collection E (by Uta and Andreas Krob), on the other hand enters uncharted territories. Instead of the usual additive construction, the designer realized an integral concept that allows a glimpse of technical details that generally are not visible. Add to that a world premiere: the first office chair that allows the sitter to regulate the grade of its hardness or softness. This Swiss-made design was realized in cooperation with the Berlin engineering office Brüske, which spent two years developing the technology. Using a slide, the aggregate state of the seat can be changed from, for example, “French comfortable” to “Scandinavian sturdy”. Collection W (by Helmut Staubach, 2003) demonstrates avant-gardism of another kind: black leather on a tubular steel framework. This elegant and simple waiting room furniture is clearly reminiscent of classical Modernism. Waiting- room chair Lenio also has a rectangular base, but here an S-shaped seat shell “hovers” above the robust wooden framework. This makes for an exciting formal contrast and a comfortable seat as well.