Interstuhl
Interstuhl
Est. 1961
About
Interstuhl is a German office furniture manufacturer based in Meßstetten-Tieringen, in the Swabian Jura region of Baden-Württemberg, producing office seating and space-structuring systems since its founding in 1961. The company grew out of a village smithy in Tieringen, where blacksmithing had been a Link family trade since 1731 and Wilhelm Link took over the workshop in 1930. Wilhelm and his son Werner Link began building sewing-machine frames in 1960, and, seeing that the seamstresses using them had no suitable seating, built their first workplace chair, the Bi-Regulette, in 1961. Made in steel, wood and aluminium, it was height-adjustable and swivelling, and its height adjustment brought the company its first patent in 1962. The Interstuhl brand name came into use in 1967, and in 1969 the business moved to its present Brühlstraße site in Meßstetten-Tieringen, where it installed its first powder-coating plant. It trades today as Interstuhl Büromöbel GmbH & Co. KG and remains an owner-managed family business, with Helmut and Joachim Link as managing partners in the third generation. Published figures for 2024 give group sales of around 220 million euros and a workforce of about 1,050. Alongside the Interstuhl brand, the group operates Bimos, which makes seating for production, ESD, laboratory, cleanroom and standing workplaces, and Backforce, which makes gaming chairs. Manufacturing is concentrated at the Meßstetten-Tieringen headquarters, a site the company gives as around 56,000 square metres, where more than 850 employees work in development, marketing and production and, by the company's account, up to 4,000 chairs are made each day. The company also has production in Slovakia, where a new production hall was commissioned in 2024, and a Latin American operation, Interstuhl LATAM, based in Mexico City. Product development combines in-house engineering with outside designers, and the catalogue covers office swivel chairs, conference and visitor chairs, stools, lounge seating and sofas, tables, privacy screens and partition modules, and enclosed telephone booths and meeting pods. Interstuhl was certified to DIN EN ISO 9001 in 1993, registered under the EMAS scheme in 1996 and certified to the DIN EN ISO 14001 environmental management standard in 1997, and individual products, among them the Backforce gaming chairs, carry the Blue Angel ecolabel. Among the recognisable models is Silver, an office and conference chair series dated by the manufacturer to 2004 and credited to Hadi Teherani with Ulrich Nether and Hans-Ullrich Bitsch, built in aluminium, glass and wood; its development produced seven patents, and it received a Red Dot design award in 2003 and an iF design award in 2005. PUREis3, a swivel chair developed with Andreas Krob and Joachim Brüske of the design agency b4k, replaces a conventional mechanism with a curved Smart Spring moulded from a specially developed polyamide compound; the spring runs along the backrest down to the chair column and lets the seat respond to the sitter's weight and movement without manual adjustment. The company states that 98 per cent of the materials in the PURE chair can be reused once it reaches the end of its service life. HUB, designed by Volker Eysing, is a modular furniture and space-structuring system whose partition screens, meeting pods, seating and telephone booths use acoustic materials to create quieter zones within open-plan offices. Interstuhl furniture is specified for open-plan and cellular offices, meeting and conference rooms, reception and lounge areas and home offices, and the range is organised around workplace zoning scenarios the company calls Splaces. Products are available through the brand's official website and its dealer network, supported by showrooms in Tieringen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Vienna, Copenhagen, Zoeterwoude, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Madrid, Milan and Dubai. Interstuhl is a long-established, family-owned German manufacturer of office seating and acoustic space-structuring systems, with sibling brands covering industrial, laboratory and gaming seating.
Specifications
- Price Range
- $$$
- Founded
- 1961
- Headquarters
- Meßstetten-Tieringen, Germany
- Certifications
- FEMB LEVELBlue AngelEMASISO 14001ISO 50001ISO 45001FISP
Resources
Common Questions
Interstuhl is headquartered in Meßstetten-Tieringen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, at Brühlstraße 21, the site the company has occupied since 1969. The headquarters is its main manufacturing location, given by the company as around 56,000 square metres, with more than 850 employees working in development, marketing and production. Interstuhl also has production in Slovakia, where a new production hall was commissioned in 2024, and a Latin American operation, Interstuhl LATAM, based in Mexico City.
Interstuhl dates its founding to 1961, when the blacksmiths Wilhelm Link and his son Werner Link built their first workplace chair, the Bi-Regulette, in the village smithy at Tieringen. Wilhelm Link had taken over that smithy in 1930, and the two had begun making sewing-machine frames in 1960 before adding chairs for the seamstresses who used them. The Interstuhl brand name came into use in 1967, and the business is now run by the third generation of the Link family.
Interstuhl makes office seating and space-structuring systems, including swivel chairs, conference and visitor chairs, lounge seating, tables, privacy screens, partition modules and enclosed acoustic pods. Recognisable models include the Silver chair series, dated by the manufacturer to 2004 and credited to Hadi Teherani with Ulrich Nether and Hans-Ullrich Bitsch, and the PUREis3 swivel chair, whose moulded Smart Spring replaces a conventional adjustment mechanism. The HUB system, designed by Volker Eysing, adds telephone booths and enclosed meeting pods for open-plan offices.
Interstuhl trades as Interstuhl Büromöbel GmbH & Co. KG and is an owner-managed family business rather than part of an outside group. Helmut and Joachim Link are the managing partners and represent the third generation of the founding family. The wider Interstuhl group also holds the Bimos and Backforce seating brands.
Interstuhl products are available through the brand's official website at interstuhl.com and its dealer network. The company also operates showrooms in Tieringen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Vienna, Copenhagen, Zoeterwoude, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Madrid, Milan and Dubai. furniture.directory is an independent directory and does not sell furniture directly.
Interstuhl was certified to DIN EN ISO 9001 in 1993, registered under the EMAS environmental scheme in 1996 and certified to the DIN EN ISO 14001 environmental management standard in 1997. Individual products carry the Blue Angel ecolabel, including the Backforce One, One Plus, V and V Plus chairs, for which Interstuhl Büromöbel GmbH & Co. KG is listed as the label holder under the scheme's upholstered furniture category. The company also states that 98 per cent of the materials in its PURE office chair can be reused once the chair reaches the end of its service life.