Paul Harnischmacher was the President of a company that manufactured shoe-cleaning products. He commissioned Breuer to design an office in Mainz. Breuer received this commission through his mentor, Walter Gropius. The office consisted of two rooms, both with large windows. The sparse furniture of the director's office included a wood desk with tubular-steel legs that Breuer would use in many subsequent interiors, wall-mounted cabinets and a glass topped, tubular-steel console table with two legs. The smaller room consisted of a desk, large storage cabinets lining both walls and a tubular-steel hand-railing that demarcated the boundary of the office. Breuer simultaneously renovated an Harnischmacher's apartment in Wiesbaden, and a few years later received his first house commission from Paul and his wife, Marianne.