Anton Lorenz started out as a teacher in history and geography in Budapest before he, in 1919, left Hungary for Leipzig, Germany where his wife, a professional opera singer, had an engagement. In 1922 Lorenz moved to Berlin where he earned a living selling locks and fittings, but five years later he became the managing director of the tubular steel furniture company Standard Möbel, founded by the architects Marcel Breuer and Kalman Lengyel.
In 1929 Lorenz singed a contract with Dutch architect and furniture designer Mart Stam so use his cantilevered chair designs. Soon after Lorenz established his own furniture company; Deutsche Stahlmöbel (Desta) while also filing a complaint against Thonet, whom he claimed had made infringements on his exclusive rights to Stam’s designs. For the Weissenhofsiedlung-project during the iconic fair Die Wohnung in Stuttgart Lorenz developed the ST 12 chair together with Mart Stam. In 1932 the Imperial Court of Justice decided in favour of Stam and Lorenz. Surprisingly, Lorenz then transferred his rights to Desta’s product range to Thonet where he worked as a patent lawyer until 1935.
From 1934 until 1938 Lorenz worked together with Hans Luckhardt to develop reclining chairs, while also working as an entrepreneur, developing a global licensing system for Germany and abroad. 1939 Lorenz went on a business trip to USA, where he due to the outbreak of WWII remained. Four years after the end of the war Lorenz became an American citizen and in 1954 he went into a partnership with Peter Fletcher in the utilization and development of reclining chairs. In 1964 Anton Lorenz passed away at the age of 73.
