CA Seydel sons

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CA Seydel Sons GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding October 27, 1847
Seat Klingenthal , Saxony , Germany
management Lars Seifert, managing director; Arnd Pucholt, technical manager
Number of employees 20th
Website www.seydel1847.com

The CA Seydel Söhne GmbH ( CASS ) is currently the oldest still producing harmonica factory in the world and has its headquarters in the music city Klingenthal in Saxony . It was founded in 1847 and quickly grew into one of the largest harmonica manufacturers in the region. Today Seydel, together with the Hohner company, is the last major manufacturer of harmonicas in Germany. The harmonica brand "Sampler" introduced in 2013 should be named as an example of innovative strength. Seydel also has many well-known brands in the past (including the legendary Bandmaster), which have an important place in the history of the development of the harmonica.

history

Company history

According to an official document, the company was founded on October 27, 1847 by Christian August Seydel in Untersachsenberg / Klingenthal i.Sa. founded. The abbreviated CASS company became, alongside the companies FA Böhm and FA Rauner , the largest manufacturer of harmonicas in the Klingenthal area. Harmonica making has been one of the up-and-coming branches of the economy in Klingenthal since the beginning of the 19th century, as local craftsmen such as Schwarzmeisel , Langhammer and Glier had learned about the principle of striking reeds , and now they began to build harmonica and sell them with great success.

The new instruments met with great international demand. Therefore, many other trades switched to making harmonica. This included the violin making, introduced by exiles in the 17th century, and the local mining industry, which has been local since Klingenthal was founded, because money could be made with the new instruments immediately without the need for a long journeyman journey or large sums of money to be paid to the guild . Older branches of the musical instrument industry were largely displaced over time.

The Seydel factory

Initially, the instruments were largely made by hand. The tongues were filed, the woods carved by hand. Children and homeworkers were also used for this purpose. In the course of industrialization, local locksmiths developed machines that increased production. This included the invention of the spring milling machine (developed by the Klingenthal machine builder Julius Berthold around 1900), the plate press and the wood milling machine for the pulpit wood. The reeds could now be made in much larger quantities, which promoted sales of the instruments to America and Australia. Furthermore, steam engines and transmissions were beneficial to the successful mass production of the harmonica.

Production and sales increased steadily until the First World War . For this reason, a consulate of the United States was opened for trade in Markneukirchen . With the beginning of the world war, business collapsed. Only after the war did sales start to rise again.

During the boom of the 1920s, Seydel built a new factory with 5400 m² of work space. The harmonica manufacturer Carl Essbach was also taken over at that time . At that time, Seydel employed 800 factory and home workers. As a result, the annual production of seven million harmonica could be exceeded in the mid-1920s. During this time, however, radio also became more and more popular. This had a negative impact on sales of the harmonica. At the end of the decade, during the global economic crisis , due to the strong decline in business, Seydel merged with two other companies to form Rauner-Seydel-Böhm- AG in order to bundle forces. The concept turned out to be unsustainable and the difficult economic times were more badly than rightly overcome. In mid-1933 CASS went into business again. During the Second World War (as in the First World War), harmonica were built for the war economy because brass was an essential raw material and the boycott of German goods broke the market in America and Australia. In order to get brass for production, an application had to be made and an assurance had to be given that harmonicas were only made for the German soldiers.

The triola

After the Second World War , Seydel was partially expropriated under the Soviet occupation in 1951 and declared a trust company under the name of the Sachsenberg Harmonica Factory . In 1952, the VEB Vereinigte Mundharmonikawerke , later VEB Vermona , was formed through the merger of other former companies . In 1964 the VEB Vermona was incorporated into the VEB Klingenthaler Harmonikawerke . At this time, the production of accompaniment and bass harmonicas was also discontinued and the tools for this were scrapped by the FDJ . For the mass production of the harmonica, the faster and cheaper stinima method was used for most types . This enabled the production of harmonicas to be increased again. One of the innovations of this time was the production of brass accordions , including the Miki , Simona and the Triola .

After German reunification , Seydel belonged to the Klingenthaler Harmonika GmbH in 1990/91 and on July 1, 1991 changed back into family ownership of Seydel and Bischoffberger. After the bankruptcy in November 2004, the company found new investors with the Stuttgart-based NIAMA Media led by Thomas Reisser and Hardy Hennige, making it the only harmonica manufacturer in German ownership. In 2007 Seydel celebrated its one hundred and sixtyth anniversary. For the occasion, an anniversary model limited to 160 instruments was produced, the Seydel 1847 Limited Edition with silver covers.

The fact that Saxony’s economic importance has increased again is demonstrated by a visit by the Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer to the company on November 9, 2018.

The Seydel family

The Seydels, who settled in Sachsenberg-Georgenthal, had been miners since the 17th century . When mining in the Saxon Vogtland ceased in 1830 , the brothers Johann Christian Seydel and Christian August Seydel were the first in the family to take up the profession of instrument maker. C. A. Seydel died in 1882 and his son Richard took over the business. In the following year, Richard's brother Moritz joined the company as a co-owner, after which the company renamed CA Seydel Sons .

Seydel letterhead

CA Seydel had established connections to North America in the 1870s, which the sons Richard and Moritz expanded. By 1900 all continents had finally been reached. The factory facilities were expanded again and again until, at the end of the First World War, in 1918, the son-in-law Hugo Bischoffberger and the sons Emil, Hugo and Curt were given the factory by senior boss Richard Seydel. Richard Seydel had been the sole owner of the company since 1910. His sons and son-in-law, Hugo Bischoffberger, stood by his side and jointly took over the management of the company after the First World War, which destroyed practically all trade connections. In trying to find markets, Seydel started almost from scratch. In 1925 the senior partner Richard Seydel died.

Difficult times followed for the domestic instrument industry, because due to the global economic crisis and the self-sufficiency policy at the beginning of the National Socialist era , total German exports fell from 111.7 million Reichsmarks (1928) to 24.3 million (1932). The lowest level was reached in 1934 at 20.3 million. After the outbreak of World War II, Hugo Bischoffberger was drafted into the army. During this time, two women ran the company: From 1939 the company was managed by Margarete Seydel and Hedwig Bischoffberger. Hedwig Bischoffberger had been supporting her husband in the company long before the war. After the expropriation and 40 years of the GDR, the Seydel heirs Christoph Bischoffberger and Gerhard Räker took over the company as part of the reprivatisation. This measure ended in 1995 with the amicable settlement and was completed on December 31st. During this time, the heir Christoph Bischoffberger died in 1993. Gerhard Räker managed the company until it went bankrupt in November 2004. Since then there has been no Seydel in the company. The new managing director is Lars Seifert from Klingenthal.

Trivia

CA Seydel ski jump on the Aschberg

When skiing gained popularity in Klingenthal at the beginning of the 20th century, the winter sports club Aschberg was founded on July 5, 1922 . The chairman was Curt August Seydel . Shortly after the club was founded, construction of a large ski jumping hill began. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on June 2, 1923, and on November 11 of the same year it was named CA Seydel-Schanze . The actual ski jump consecration took place on January 5th and 6th, 1924, with the Schwaderbach ski jumper Sepp Scherbaum performing the consecration jump. In the following summer the ski jumping hill was rebuilt to allow larger jumping distances. A second, smaller one was placed on the main frame in order to lengthen the inrun. Jump distances of 50 meters were achieved.

See also


Products

The product range extends from the children's brass harmonica Triola ( listen ), the diatonic Richter blues models to Viennese tremolo instruments ( listen ), Knittlinger octave harmonica ( listen ) to chromatic harmonica . The production of bass and accompaniment harmonicas was discontinued due to a lack of demand in the 1960s. Loudspeaker.svg Loudspeaker.svg Loudspeaker.svg 

The Seydel company says it has specialized in products of the highest quality and manufactures all harmonicas in a manufactory manner . As the only industrial manufacturer, harmonicas are also delivered exactly according to customer requirements. The sale takes place not only through specialist retailers selected around the world, but also directly through its own website .

Octave spectrum of the Seydel blues harps
Octave spectrum of the Seydel blues harps

The company is unique in the area of super-low tunings ( listen to ? / I ), which Seydel invented, and the variety of special tunings . Audio file / audio sample

The standard special keys of the Richter Blues models: The standard special keys of the chromatic models:

It is noteworthy that Seydel with its 3-track service system also gives customers the option of replacing individual defective reeds on their instrument with the help of a special tool set.

Brands

Bandmaster poster from the 1920s

The classics among Seydel instruments that have had a lasting influence on the development of the industry are the Bandmaster brand, manufactured in the 1920s , the Boomerang , manufactured in the 1930s, and the Triola children's brass harmonica, which has been built since the 1960s . Another milestone of the company is the production of the so-called Renaissance , a chromatic harmonica that was developed by Douglas Tate and Bobbie Giordano as "the best harmonica in the world". Other well-known brands are: Koh-i-Noor , Olympia , Weltmeister , Music-Master , Troubadour , Centenario and Vermona . In 2007 Seydel launched the 1847 harmonica. 1847 is the founding year of the Seydel company. It is the first harmonica brand to use stainless steel reeds throughout . In 2013 Seidel then presented a new concept for chromatic harmonicas with the harmonica brand known as "Sampler".

Artists playing Seydel harmonica

Cultural

Harmonica Festival: Every year in September, Harmonica Live takes place in the factory halls as part of the Harmonica Festival. Visitors receive guided tours and exercises for playing the harmonica and take part in concerts by various bands.

  • historical Seydel products

  • Engraving of a Seydel harmonica from 1880

  • Clover

  • Band master

  • Boomerang reconstruction

literature

Web links

Commons : CA Seydel Sons  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b According to a statement by Seydel operations manager Karl Pucholt, October 13, 2006
  2. ↑ a b Wir-Verlag Walter Weller (ed.): Klingenthal . Wir-Verlag Walter Weller, Aalen 1991, ISBN 3-924492-59-X .
  3. ^ CA Seydel Sons: Chronicle of the family business . In: 150 years of Seydel . 1997 p. 2.
  4. ↑ Seydel Homepage October 10, 2006 ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ SEYDEL LOW Tunings Flyer 2011
  6. ↑ SEYDEL Blues Favorite in major tuning (Super Low) ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 50 ° 23 ′ 0.8 ″  N , 12 ° 29 ′ 12.4 ″  E

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 13, 2006 .