A single-minded business that spans 50 years
The story
In 1959 a Danish furniture entrepreneur, Niels Vitsœ (1913-1995), and a German furniture-maker, Otto Zapf, founded Vitsoe+Zapf to realise the furniture designs of the rising star of design, Dieter Rams.
The proposition was to create down-to-earth furniture that would last as long as possible – thinking that has never been more relevant than it is today.
Dieter Rams (b1932) had come to their attention as a young employee of Braun in Germany when he was involved in the design of a revolutionary (to the extent that some feared for the future of the Braun company) new record player, the Braun SK4 (quickly nicknamed ‘Snow White’s Coffin’).
Cultural meetings
With the bravery of Rams’s design Vitsœ produced an innovative collection of modern furniture that was initially sold largely in Germany.
Here the Vitsœ (Zapf left in 1969) showroom became an important cultural meeting and reference point in Frankfurt.
Meeting of minds
In 1985 the Briton, Mark Adams – who shared a fundamental belief in good, common-sense design – was introduced to Dieter Rams and Niels Vitsœ and he established Vitsœ Limited in London to import and distribute Vitsœ furniture.
Eight years later Niels Vitsœ retired and Adams became managing director of Vitsœ in Germany. In 1995 Adams transferred the corporate seat and production of the company to the United Kingdom.
Today
Today Vitsœ is an international company that sells directly to customers around the world via this website.
Dieter Rams continues to oversee his brainchild, working closely with Vitsœ as the products are evolved and new markets are developed.
Our aims in 1970
On the opening of Vitsœ’s new showroom in Frankfurt in 1970, Niels Vitsœ set out his company’s aims:
“To develop and manufacture furniture based on down-to-earth design.
“Products that show honesty by scrapping all that is superfluous – not to save money but to underline the essentials.
“Furniture that moves with you; furniture that is in complete harmony with itself and can be adapted to its surroundings at will.
“A collection with its own character, still open to anything, and neutral enough to leave the owners’ individual taste a lot of scope.”
Pronunciation and spelling
Vitsœ is pronounced ‘vit-soo’. The sound in the second syllable is known as a diphthong.
It is commonly misspelled as vitsu, vitsoo, vitsue, vitso, vitseo, vitose, vitzoe, vizzo, vistsoe and vitsoy but we can assure you that it is spelled ‘Vitsœ’.
In Danish, Vitsœ is spelled Vitsø but the name was brought into the non-Danish language world as Vitsoe and Vitsœ in the 1950s when the company was founded as Vitsoe+Zapf.
606 Universal Shelving System has also been known as RZ 60 and Regalsystem 606 in the past, but these are just alternative names to 606 Universal Shelving System.
The o and e are “ligatured” (joined together) and can be found on your keyboard using alt+0156 or alt+Q.