Wilhelm Kimbel came from a family of cabinetmakers in Mainz who moved to Breslau in 1866, shortly before his birth. He spent his apprenticeship years in Hamburg, Cologne, Mainz and Berlin and learned how to work in various historical-decorative styles from the most skilled master craftsmen of his time. Between 1889 and 1894 he stayed in America and then worked as a self-employed architect, painter and craftsman. In 1897 he founded the company Kimbel & Friedrichsen in Berlin. He worked with inlaying wooden mosaics (marquetry) and mechanics with such success that soon after the turn of the century he became one of the capital's leading interior designers.
With his company, Kimbel supplied the Berlin upper class with furniture of the highest quality, which was based on English furniture in terms of shape, design and decorative elements. The taste of his customers was more classically conservative.
In 1908, Wilhelm Kimbel received the title of court cabinetmaker and a small gold medal at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition. After his company went bankrupt in 1931, Wilhelm Kimbel moved to Zehdenick in 1933, was registered as a member of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts,[1] and created a large number of landscape and floral watercolors there, which were well received by the public. He died on the 21st. May 1965, his grave is in Zehdenicke Cemetery I.
Gerhart Hauptmann created a monument to his friend Wilhelm Kimbel in the novel Wanda with the character of Willi Maak from Breslau.
Between 1904 and 1917, Kimbel created his important interior decorations in the Renaissance, Empire and Louis XVI styles for the Berlin Armory, which was destroyed in 1945. and the neo-baroque. He worked for the Kronprinzenpalais (Berlin) in 1906. He created modern-style furnishings for the Hotel Adlon and the Eden Hotel on Kurfürstendamm. The intarsia hall of the Charlottenburg town hall was designed by him in 1914. His work could be found in the management offices of Deutsche Bank AG on Behrenstrasse and the Berlin City Palace, as well as on some HAPAG passenger ships (1922–1929) and in Paulinum Palace in the Hirschberger Valley.
In 1919/20, Kimbel and his Berlin company Kimbel & Friedrichsen were responsible for extensive redesigns in Wernigerode Castle, in particular the so-called “Henrichskammern” and parts of the ground floor, including the study of Prince Stolberg-Wernigerode and the “New Library” installation. These works are among Kimbel's best-preserved major works to date.