Breuer moved to Vienna in 1920, having won a scholarship to attend the Academy of Fine Arts. Dissatisfied with the course of study, he soon dropped out and, on the advice of a friend, entered the newly-established Bauhaus at Weimar. There, thanks to his De Stijl inspired Wood Slat Chair (1921), Breuer became one of the institution’s best known students, and, after a period in Paris, became director of the furniture workshop in 1925.

It was around this time that Breuer, inspired by the purchase of his first bicycle, began to experiment with tubular steel. The result was the iconic Club chair (1925)—eventually dubbed the Wassily chair after Kandinski, who used one in his Bauhaus office. Throughout the late 1920's, Breuer continued to design furniture in metal; much of it was incorporated into the masters’ houses and common areas of the new Bauhaus complex at Dessau.

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