It was founded by German stained-glass artist Max Guler.

Munich Studio of Chicago was established in 1903, by German immigrant artist Max Guler (1870–1937).

Guler studied China painting in his native town of Munich and had arrived in Chicago in 1896.

He and his two partners, salesman L. Holzchuh and manager/bookkeeper Denis Shanahan, formed a soon-successful firm that hired numerous artisans and eventually made windows for probably 150 churches throughout the Midwest, until the Great Depression arrested church construction and put the company out of business in 1932.

According to Drehobl's son: “Guler was a short, stout man whose greatest enjoyment was to sit at his drawing board dreaming of new ways to express a Biblical event or quotation” in “pictorial windows beautifully grouped in rich, gorgeous colors.” Guler was also proficient in creating and painting windows, although he usually left that work to his master artisans, including: Peter Kugel, who specialized in portraits and flesh tinting; Herman Schulze, who painted landscapes, floral designs, cloth textures and drapery folds; and George Wieroeder and Joseph Lazar, who cut, fired and leaded the glass.

These men worked together to execute Guler's beautifully detailed pencil drawings and watercolor renderings.

[3] Munich Studio windows are characterized by the use of:[1] Partial Munich Studio catalog listings from 1910 to 1925 note thirty-two major church installations in Chicago; and ninety-six in churches in other Midwestern states than Illinois.

[1] Most of the listings below are from two Munich Studio catalogs in the Chicago History Museum archives (see below) unless otherwise cited, and list the churches in which windows were installed, or the priests who ordered them.

M. Krug) Woodstock, IL: St. Mary's Church Anthon, IA: (Fr.

Historical Museum)[15] Saginaw, MI: St. Joseph Catholic Church (1923)[16] Wyandotte, MI: Our Lady of Mount Carmel (1915)[17] Lismore, MN: St. Anthony's Church Easton, MN: (Fr.

William Hovestadt) Billings, MT: St. Patrick Co-Cathedral Bozeman, MT: Holy Rosary Grand Forks, ND: St. Mary's (1914)[18][19] Grand Forks, ND: St. Michael's Ewing, NE: (Fr.