The strong wind and the annoying sun made it possible
When a well-to-do lady was looking for a place to sit because of her rheumatism, where she was protected from the sun and wind, but at the same time could breathe in the soothing Baltic Sea air, Wilhelm Bartelmann from Warnemünde, a Baltic Sea spa near Rostock, racked his brains for days in 1882. Then, on June 15, 1882, the first beach chair was set up on the beach in Warnemünde for the first time.
What did the first beach chair look like?
It was a single-seater that had neither footrests nor a height-adjustable backrest or the nowadays classic side folding table. And even though it was ridiculed on the one hand because of its structure as an "upright laundry basket", it also found favor in society. Thus Wilhelm Bartelmann, as a trained basket maker, designed a two-seater just one year later, which just as quickly enjoyed great popularity due to its functionality.
While Bartelsmann's wife started the first beach chair rental business, his former apprentice Johann Falk developed a model with an adjustable backrest in 1897, the so-called "half lounger". And even though there was already seating furniture in the 17th and 18th centuries that looked similar to the Strandkorb and there was a corresponding design in a pattern book by the basket maker Ernst Karl Nikolaus Freese, Bartelmann is inevitably regarded as the inventor, since he is ultimately responsible for the further development in addition to the initial implementation.
Did the inventor of the beach chair become rich?
It's just a pity that he didn't apply for a patent for it, because unfortunately he didn't become rich with his idea. And indeed, it took a while until the beach chairs came to the beaches in large numbers in the 1920s.
Today, it is hard to imagine our beaches on the Baltic and North Sea without beach chairs. While they have now been made available for both domestic use, they are now also exported to neighboring countries.