In 1938, Hans Knoll founded H.G. Knoll Furniture Company with the intent of bringing the Modern ideals championed at Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany to America. A third-generation member of a German furniture manufacturing family, Hans immigrated to the United States in search of a new audience. Together with Florence Schust Knoll, who joined the company in 1941, Hans developed an identity for Knoll defined by the clean lines and tubular steel of the Bauhaus as well as the craftsmanship and organic forms of Cranbrook – a synthesis that helped shape the American Modern movement.