The creation of Maxluzi
MAXLUZI was born from a shared passion for designing and crafting beautiful things. “Shaping life in detail,” giving the things that surround us longevity, is our goal. Life and work flow into one another. Family life, country living, and workshop life come together for us as a meaningful whole.
We are now a small wood workshop located in the heart of the Mecklenburg Lake District. MAXLUZI GmbH is a very young company, founded in July 2021. The owners and managing directors are Luzi Graf and Max Strack. Over time, we’ve become a small team, with Robert joining us as an additional woodturner, who provides Max with valuable support. Since autumn 2023, we’ve also become a training company and are now welcoming our first apprentice. In addition, several freelancers support us depending on the workload.
At MAXLUZI, we craft unique pieces from a wide variety of materials, with wood being the material that fascinates us the most. The rich forests of our surroundings provide both inspiration and the raw material from which we create our products. Our main focus is on ultra-thin, turned wooden lampshades. The craftsmanship and artistry required to process wood in such a way that light shines through, creating a fascinating interplay of wood and light, is a unique feature of MAXLUZI. Small furniture, accessories, and wooden gifts complement our product range, all of which can be viewed and purchased in the “MAXLUZI Gallery” at the old Seewalde Manor, right in the heart of the Mecklenburg Lake District.
We, the founders Max Strack and Luzi Graf, are MAXLUZI through and through. Craftsmanship, tradition, sustainability, and quality play a major role in our work and products, but so does keeping up with the times. We can only meet the high-quality standards of our work by producing the items ourselves. We achieve this by developing and manufacturing, whenever possible, every single small component in our workshops. All our products are made by us. We take 100% responsibility for ensuring that the quality meets the expectations of our customers, that everything is transparent and authentic. We also apply sustainability in our relationships. Social justice and transparent communication form the basis for creative cooperation.
Management
MAXLUZI has been living and working together since 2014. In July 2021, they founded MAXLUZI GmbH to drive the company’s development and expand its reach. The managing partners are Max Strack and Luzi Graf.
Max Strack is a trained carpenter and passionate woodturner. His core competencies lie in the company’s vision, networking, and, of course, his craft. He also brings a range of other skills in various fields. His creativity and tireless drive to create are combined with his vision of “actively shaping the future.” His inner approach, to lead a company through lateral rather than hierarchical leadership to success—a success that respects people, nature, and the craft—drives him forward.
Luzi Graf is a trained interior architect with many years of experience in lighting design. Her time in Munich with the great “Master of Light,” Ingo Maurer, who passed away in 2019, was particularly formative. Together, Luzi Graf and Max Strack began using their skills to create shared products in Mecklenburg. It seems only natural that this partnership would give rise to sophisticated lighting solutions made of wood.
The history of MAXLUZI began as a sole proprietorship in 2018 by Max Strack. Luzi Graf supported the foundation but remained independent in her career as a freelance interior architect. MAXLUZI became a workshop focused on turned wooden lampshades. Both in the design of products and in the technical solutions for accessories, they both demonstrate a competent and sensitive sense of the times. Everything they do is authentic, consistent, and fully aligns with their standards for MAXLUZI.
