Carl Robert Wagner is regarded as the inventor of the steel stool, which among other things was chosen for the workshops and classrooms of the Bauhaus Dessau.

[3] And no later than 1896, with the patent for a ventilation window closure,[4][5] Rowac not only quickly acquired a satisfied customer base, but also asserted itself alongside its competitors.

In 1898, the German Construction Newspaper (Deutsche Bauzeitung) had a resoundingly positive opinion of the ventilation window closure, as the mechanisms in use up to that time could not be recommended due to their major shortcomings.

[6] The constantly growing demand was so high that the company had to move its factory premises within Chemnitz several times, before finally in 1900 a location was chosen in Altchemnitz (Annaberger Straße 282a).

[2][7] Besides the expansion, it is worth mentioning that in the same year Carl Robert Wagner was even awarded an honorary certificate, a gold medal,[1][8] from the permanent trade exhibition in Leipzig, and in old Rowac brochures there are references from the former royal and municipal authorities across Germany.

The reason for this was its superior durability compared to simple wooden stools, which had to be repaired again and again due to cracks, loose legs, etc.

[9][10] It is of particular note that in 1923 architects Max Taut und Franz Hoffman chose Rowac stools to furnish the administration building of the General German Trade Union Federation in Berlin-Mitte, and in 1926 the stools found a place in the classrooms and workshops of Walter Gropius' Bauhaus building in Dessau.

In addition to stools, Rowac also produced chairs, tables and benches made of steel, which were used, for example, to furnish entourage rooms.

"[12] Goods were supplied to all European countries (with the exception of Russia, Poland and the Balkan states)[2] until the effects of the Great Depression were also felt in Saxony.

[1] The guiding principle of the company continued to be "the creation of healthy workstations",[2] which was even referenced as a prime example in specialist literature on hygiene in the office workplace in 1931.

[15] A letter from 1941 from Rowac to the wheat starch factory Crespel & Deiters in Ibbenbüren reveals that the processing of the steel chassis of the swivel chairs was switched to beech wood.

[20] The Rowac stool is included in the chair collection of the Institute for Art History, Architecture and Urbanism at the Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.

Built in 1901, the factory building is a protected historic landmark and continues to be used by bemefa Metallmöbel GmbH for the production of metal furniture.

The legs are fitted with elaborately folded, non-detachable feet which provide a flat surface in order to protect floors.

The wooden seat (initially made of solid wood and later plywood) is attached to a base plate of embossed steel sheet via screws.

The basic construction of the Rowac stool has always remained the same, but various originals and brochures indicate that individual parts, such as the foot, the legs, the struts and the wooden seat, were developed further over the years.

From the 1920s onwards, in order to distinguish themselves from the market and as a sign of quality, the legs, sometimes also the base plate, were embossed with the Rowac logo.

A rare example is the armrest swivel chair (model XVI), which served among other things as a fixture in the legendary Feuerhand factory in Beierfeld, Germany.

All transport containers were provided with a strong round steel reinforcement along the upper edge for a particularly long service life.

As early as 1906, beer bottle crates were included in Rowac's product range, as can be seen in The Address Book of all Nations on Earth (Adressbuch aller Länder der Erde).

[28] The design of the Rowac stool represents the functionalist ideal advocated by the Bauhaus, among others, in Germany in the interwar period, in which practicality and utility were intended to be at the centre of aesthetic interest.

[25] The fact that Walter Gropius chose the Rowac stool, of all things, for the Bauhaus building is believed to be due to its technically refined yet simple construction.

"[29] Photos from the Bauhaus archive show that Rowac stools were not only used as seating in the workshops, but also for all kinds of other activities in the Prellerhaus and by the in-house band (Die Bauhauskapelle).

The purpose of this factory furniture was, for example, to prevent premature fatigue that would have resulted from standing for long periods of time, or to organise tools for space- and time-saving work.

Rowac also expanded its range and produced this technically more complex, material and cost-intensive option, after having opted for the more cost-effective solution in the early days, when it offered only stools in various heights.

Tubular steel and metal furniture, such as toolboxes, filing cabinets and safes, lockers, shelves, tables and various seating furniture, were not only used in factories and industrial enterprises, but also became established in public institutions such as offices, schools, nursing homes and hospitals and in the food service industry.