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Willem Hendrik Gispen (1890-1981) was there when the Bauhaus presented the first cantilever tubular steel chair in Stuttgart in 1926. When Gispen also came up with cantilever models, there was a discussion about copyright in which Thonet, with designers Mart Stam and Marcel Breuer, were up against Gispen. Not much later, Gispen was commissioned to supply the chairs for the Van Nelle factory in Rotterdam. The building was equipped with several versions of the diagonal chair. Gispen presented a prototype in 1927 and from 1929 the chair was produced in series. The name was derived from the sharp bend in the steel.