Since it’s inception in June 1865 when Wilhelm Knoll opened his wholesale leather shop in Stuttgart the name Knoll has been synonymous with top grade products , initially with the leather alone and later with some of the most innovative designs and highest quality furniture in Europe and the world.

Following several exploratory trips to the U.S.A. Wilhelm Knoll began manufacturing luxury furniture in 1906. He died the following year leaving entrepreneurial sons Walter and Willy to continue the family business.

Together they introduced many new concepts, including the first chair made from woven leather, a sprung seat separating cushions from the frame of the chair and the now world famous ’Club’ style tub chair.
Walter left the company in 1921, travelled extensively soaking up new ideas and then in 1925 founded Walter Knoll & Co GmbH in Stuttgart.
In keeping with the Bauhaus movement Walter Knoll produced the first tubular steel chairs in 1929 and in 1936 his brother Wilhelm provided chairs for the ill fated Zeppelin Hindenberg.

In the same year his eldest son Robert joined the company whilst brother Hans emigrated to America and set up Hans G Knoll Furniture Co, later to become Knoll International. The Second World War saw an end to the thriving export business and the two German factories closed.
At the age of 69 Walter began to rebuild the company and his son Hans sent designs for the very successful VOSTRA chair – by 1950 the company was again well established. Brother Willy died in 1954 and ten years later 88 year old Walter resigned handing over the reins to Robert who was destined to lead the company into it’s influential position as one of the world’s leading producers of premium quality seating with the help of top designers.

Prestigious contracts including the new Berlin airport and the German Chancellors cabinet office followed. Robert died in 1985 to be succeeded by his son Michael and the companies of Wilhelm and Walter Knoll merged.

The latest chapter for Walter Knoll began in 1993 when Markus Benz of the Rolf Benz family acquired the company. The last eight years have seen the company grow from strength to strength with considerable year on year increases in volume of sales, greater penetration of existing export markets, the successful creation of new ones and a whole raft of new contemporary designs for the contract office, leisure and residential sectors.

In 1998 Markus Benz acquired the design rights to the KILL portfolio bringing with them many wonderful office models including the classic FK chair with it’s leather wrapped moulded ply shell. An extensive range of workshop made executive desks, tables, storage and chairs complete the current line-up.

Norman Fosters new Reichstag building is now home to many hundreds of Walter Knoll armchairs, sofas and dining chairs whilst in the UK we continue supplying many of the country’s best known companies with their wonderful products – seating that is hand built from the frame to the final inspection, just as it was when Walter and Willy started the company.

For well over a century WALTER KNOLL production centred on the factory built adjacent to Herrenburg station just outside Stuttgart. To this day many of the specialist hand built sofas and chairs are still produced here using techniques and knowledge built over the years.

In 2001 bowing to the pressures of overflowing order books and the need for additional sophisticated equipment, storage and loading facilities WALTER KNOLL opened a brand new hi-tech plant in addition to the existing building which struggled to cope with demand.

An enormous range of standard fabrics from companies such as Kvadrat, Zimmer & Rohde and Sahco Hesslein, complemented by leathers from top European tanners Svewi and Elmo are delivered, sorted and stored ready for use.

Every hide is individually inspected for quality before being placed on a storage 'horse'. Customers own fabrics and leathers are examined in the same way.

Thousands of templates hang ready for use -many models may require twenty or thirty sections to be accurately placed over lengths of fabric or hides before pattern cutting with minimum wastage can commence. This is a highly skilled job and requires considerable experience, particularly in the case of leather where every hide comes with itís own natural blemishes and great care must be taken to use only prime 'cuts'on very visible parts of the model.

Assembly of the pattern sections is undertaken by machinists each of whom is familiar with a given set of models to ensure maximum quality and understanding of how a pattern shapes and how the leather or fabric works with each curve. Hand stitching is applied for particularly complicated assembly.

All of the seating uses solid beech frames which are then covered with foam carefully cut to shape and applied in a whole range of densities and sandwich combinations designed to ensure maximum durability and comfort over many, many years of use. Seat and back fillings include a selection of cold cure, composite and moulded foams, cushions with fibre filling and Waterlily™ with down filling.

Finally the completed covers are fitted over the timber / metal construction and assorted filled cushions and pads to reveal another piece of WALTER KNOLL furniture ready for today's user and tomorrow's collector.