Stuttgart, 1971: Four young people open a shop, the “Magazin Warenhandelsgesellschaft für technical goods and furnishing supplies”.

On offer: everyday objects for a new era.

Today the magazine has shops in Stuttgart, Bonn and Munich - and a web shop.

Since 2006, the design and furniture trade has belonged to Manufactum as an independent brand.

Stephan Dornhofer, the second generation of the magazine, has been managing director since 1984.

Mr. Dornhofer, "What is honored in the workshop is not wrong for the apartment" was one of the guiding principles of the magazine's founders 50 years ago.

Is that still true today?

Yes, that is still a common thread that runs through the range, even if not for every single product.

This attitude includes the aesthetic perception of the product, this open, honest, self-referential, thoroughly tool-like quality.

And a self-explanatory functionality.

The first magazine store was actually the by-product of a research project at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, a kind of practical exercise.

What drove the founders, the contradiction between criticism of capitalism and the task of designing new products, is still relevant, isn't it?

Brand new.

The founders' critical spirit of capitalism quickly turned into a mercantile idea.

At the magazine, we live in the dilemma that we work as retailers but want to work as designers.

It is clear to us that we will ensure that more and more products are put into the.

The claim that these are sensible products is all the more true.

What makes a product sensible?

There are hard facts, from the use of materials to durability and robustness to design quality.

It is precisely this that ensures that I don't want to replace an item again tomorrow.

A real network had developed around the first store in Stuttgart over the years.

Other actors opened further shops and there were joint sales brochures.

Is this model current again in the age of social media?

We live in a world in which this is hardly understandable any more.

Today, duplication happens as a franchise, everything is poured into concepts that are not freely available.

At that time, the business model could be multiplied as open source, there was a great deal of openness.

You have been welcomed with open arms as a multiplier of the great idea.

How did the exchange work?

There were a large number of magazine stores that referred to the Stuttgart idea.

You were friends or at least known, it was an open working group.

Did you jointly procure products for the range?

The common procurement and the exchange of information, these were essential goals of the cooperation.

At that time, products were not as easily accessible as they are today.

However, there were also some uninspired imitators whose range no longer had much to do with the guiding principles of the founders.

It was important to keep your distance.

Back then you were explorers.

They had to go through phone books and business directories to find potential suppliers.

Today everything is somehow tangible for everyone, the horizon seems infinite.

But the pendulum swings in the other direction again.

European companies are bringing production back from the Far East in order to keep value chains shorter and more controllable.