C. Bechstein

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C. Bechstein Pianoforte Aktiengesellschaft

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1853
Seat Berlin , Germany
management Stefan Freymuth, CEO
Number of employees approx. 170 in Bechstein AG, approx. 360 in the entire Bechstein group
sales 33 million euros (2012)
Branch Instrument making
Website www.bechstein.com

The C. Bechstein Pianoforte Aktiengesellschaft is a German - global - Manufacturer and distributor of pianos and grand pianos. The piano factory was founded by Carl Bechstein in 1853 in Berlin , Johannis Strasse 5 and was purveyor to the court of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia . Today the instruments of the brands C. Bechstein Concert and C. Bechstein Academy are produced in Seifhennersdorf in Saxony . The company also manufactures instruments under the W. Hoffmann and Zimmermann brands .

With around 3,700 instruments sold annually, Bechstein is the largest European piano manufacturer.

history

The beginnings

Carl Bechstein
Alter-Bechstein lettering, 1870
Serial number of an old Bechstein piano from 1870
Restored Bechstein Concert D grand piano from 1885
Bechstein grand piano from 1893
Bechstein Art Nouveau grand
piano , 1902
Advertisement for Bechstein pianos from 1925

Carl Bechstein started the piano factory as a one-man operation. By 1859, Bechstein had delivered 176 instruments. The stability of the materials used, which was unusual for the time, and the high resilience of the instruments quickly made the name Bechstein famous. At the end of the 1860s, Carl Bechstein began exporting his instruments to Great Britain and Russia, among others . As a gift to Richard Wagner, King Ludwig II of Bavaria ordered a composition piano from Carl Bechstein, which Wagner was very pleased with.

From 1870 the company manufactured around 500 instruments a year. In 1882 a second factory was founded in Berlin. A branch in London followed in 1885 and the third factory in Berlin in 1897.

In 1901, the Bechstein Hall in London completed the construction of its own concert building. With the outbreak of the First World War and the subsequent expropriation and closure, the building was named Wigmore Hall in 1917 and was reopened for concerts. Bechstein built other concert buildings in Paris and Saint Petersburg . Carl Bechstein sold his instruments to concert organizers, imperial courts and conservatories. Its popularity made exports soar.

After the death of the company founder

After Carl Bechstein's death in 1900, his sons Edwin (* 1859), Carl jun. (1860–1931) and Johannes (* 1863) the company. Edwin took over the commercial management, Carl the instrument making. In 1903 the company had 800 employees and produced 4,500 instruments a year. In the same year the company set up a further branch in Paris.

During the First World War, the Bechstein foreign branches came to an end in 1916. The British government had ordered the compulsory liquidation of all German branches ; Bechstein was also expropriated in France .

Edwin and his wife Helene Bechstein (née Capito) bought their way back into the company in 1923. Edwin had retired in 1916 after an argument with his brother and had taken off. Helene Bechstein, now co-owner of the company, was an early admirer of Adolf Hitler . Together with Elsa Bruckmann (wife of the publisher Hugo Bruckmann ), she made it possible for Hitler, who at the time was mostly only regionally sensational, to rise to the “better circles” in Munich and Berlin. She also provided him with extensive financial support. However, these activities were not beneficial to the company. Because of Helene's open anti-Semitic attitude, they lost some important customers.

During the Second World War, a department for propeller construction was set up within the company.

After the Second World War

Because of its close contacts with the National Socialist regime , the American occupying power confiscated and denazified the Bechstein company. The American trust company repealed this seizure in 1951. In 1959, Bechstein founded another factory in Karlsruhe . The number of instruments built there and in Berlin each year was 1,000 in the 1960s. Another location followed in Eschelbronn .

owner

History of the legal form of today's Carl Bechstein AG
year Legal form or owner
1853 Carl Bechstein as a sole proprietor
1906 general partnership (OHG)
1923 Family-owned company
1945 American Trust Company
1951 unknown
1963 Acquisition of all shares by the American piano manufacturer Baldwin Piano Company
1973 Conversion of the Bechstein company into a GmbH
1986 Purchase by entrepreneur and master piano maker Karl Schulze
2003 Strategic partnership with the South Korean musical instrument manufacturer Samick through participation
2009 Surrender of the shares in the Samick company through capital increases
open initial public offering
2016 Delisting of the shares and takeover of 90% of the shares by Kuthe GmbH (Berlin)

activities

Piano manufacture and sale

In 2017, 3,656 instruments were sold. In 2017, the turnover of the C. Bechstein Group was 35.1 million euros (2016: 33 million euros) and the annual profit was 2.3 million euros.

Brands

  • C. Bechstein Concert
  • C. Bechstein Academy
  • W. Hoffmann
  • Carpenter
  • Euterpe (end of production in 2009)
  • Wilh. Steinmann (end of production in 2009)

Production facilities and locations

  • The instruments of the brands C. Bechstein Concert and C. Bechstein Academy are produced in Seifhennersdorf.
  • W. Hoffmann instruments are produced in Hradec Králové in the Czech Republic .
  • The pianos and grand pianos of the Zimmermann brand are now produced in the Beilun district of the Chinese metropolis of Ningbo . However, this is not a location for the Bechstein company. The factory belongs to the Chinese piano manufacturer Hailun Piano, which, in addition to its own product range, builds Zimmermann instruments on behalf and under the supervision of C. Bechstein.
  • Bechstein maintains representations in 16 German cities, which are named by Bechstein Centrum . Another center is located in Hradec Králové.

Concert promoter

C. Bechstein operates as a concert organizer across Europe. In the past, Bechstein was able to engage internationally successful pianists, such as Kit Armstrong , Igor Levit , Alice Sara Ott and Lise de la Salle . The company has also founded the C. Bechstein Young Professionals concert series. Here piano students from various German music academies are given the opportunity to give their first concerts to promote talent.

Sponsorship

Under the patronage of pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy , the first International Carl-Bechstein-Ruhr Piano Competition took place in March 2006 at the Folkwang University in Essen . In addition to cash prizes, the winners also received concert engagements.

Every year there were C. Bechstein university competitions, for example in 2009 in cooperation with the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf and the C. Bechstein University Competition in Baden-Württemberg in Mannheim, 2010 in cooperation with the University of Music and Theater in Hanover, 2011 C. Bechstein University competition Baden-Württemberg in Trossingen.

Carl Bechstein Foundation

C. Bechstein Pianoforte AG is one of the founders of the non-profit Carl Bechstein Foundation, which, among other things, equips elementary schools with pianos free of charge and has been organizing the Carl Bechstein Competition for young pianists every year since 2014 .

Pianists

For many decades, major composers such as Franz Liszt , Richard Wagner or Claude Debussy and famous pianists such as Wilhelm Backhaus , Walter Gieseking , Artur Schnabel , Wilhelm Furtwängler , Wilhelm Kempff or Jorge Bolet preferred grand pianos from C. Bechstein.

Pianists have been recording at Bechstein since the beginning of modern sound recording. Famous recordings from the 1930s were made by Artur Schnabel (all Beethoven sonatas for HMV) and Edwin Fischer ( Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier for HMV). After the Second World War, pianists such as Jorge Bolet (Decca) and Dinu Lipatti (EMI) made records on Bechstein. Recent CD productions on Bechstein have been made by Aldo Ciccolini , Konstantin Lifschitz , Abdel Rahman El Bacha, Michel Dalberto, Boris Bloch , Pavel Gililov , Shani Diluka, Zhang Hai'ou , David Theodor Schmidt . In the field of jazz, Oscar Peterson , Joachim Kühn and, in 2009, Paul Kuhn recorded at Bechstein. In pop music, the Beatles recorded Hey Jude and White albums on a Bechstein, as did David Bowie , Freddie Mercury ( Queen : A Night at the Opera ), Supertramp , Elton John ( Your Song ) and Peter Gabriel . Numerous records were recorded in the Abbey Road and Trident Studios.

Trivia

The first concert grand piano, built for the pianist Hans von Bülow in 1856, has the production number 100. In view of the production figures, however, this number cannot be correct and was probably only of cosmetic character.

In 1896 industrialists and traders in Berlin organized the Berlin trade exhibition in Treptow, at which Bechstein was represented as an exhibitor with selected instruments. These were awarded the Golden State Medal for outstanding commercial performance.

On December 8, 1910, Alexander Scriabin wrote to the pianist Matvej Presman about a planned concert tour: “I am sending you the program of my concerts. I forgot to tell you that now I always play on a Bechstein . Therefore, please ensure that good instruments (Bechstein of course) are made available to me in all three cities. [...] "

Bechstein made a gold-plated Bechstein grand piano available to the world exhibition in Barcelona . The first electro-acoustic grand piano ( Neo-Bechstein ) was constructed, which was supposed to inspire house music .

literature

  • C.-Bechstein-Pianofortefabrik Aktiengesellschaft and Berenice Küpper (Ed.): Piano Worlds. Fascination with an instrument. Nicolai-Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-87584-963-9 (English parallel edition: The World of Pianos. Fascination with an Instrument. Ibid 2005, ISBN 3-87584-993-0 ).
  • Hagen W. Lippe-Weißenfeld: The piano as a means of socio-political distinction. Cultural sociological case study on the development of the piano manufacturing industry in England and Germany using the examples of Broadwood and Bechstein. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-3-631-56268-0 ( contributions to European music history 11), (also: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2006).
  • Peter Donhauser: Electric sound machines. The pioneering days in Germany and Austria. Böhlau, Vienna a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-3-205-77593-5 (on Neo-Bechstein ).

Movies

  • A piano goes around the world. Documentation, Germany, 2008, 45 min., Script and direction: Michael Busse and Maria-Rosa Bobbi, production: WDR , first broadcast: April 28, 2008, summary by WDR

Web links

Commons : C. Bechstein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. bechstein.com: Imprint
  2. Annual Report 2010. (PDF) bechstein.com
  3. Thomas Christmann: A golden piano from Seifhennersdorf for China . In: Saxon newspaper . May 2, 2013 ( paid online [accessed May 2, 2013]).
  4. Consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2017 and Group management report 2017 (PDF)
  5. The Golden C. Bechstein luxury wing ( Memento from July 18, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  6. ^ Klaus-Peter Schmid: Bechstein: Wohlklang from Seifhennersdorf . In: Die Zeit , No. 1/1998
  7. Ursula Seiler: Who financed Hitler . In: ZeitenSchrift. No. 47, 2005.
  8. Announcement of the Berlin Stock Exchange (PDF) of May 17, 2016; was carried out as announced.
  9. Hailun Piano Homepage (English), see below the Zimmermann brand under Partners and the address in Beilun District, Ningbo City.
  10. Exploring Zimmermann Pianos image film by C. Bechstein on the production and quality control of Zimmermann pianos in China (English). The location in Ningbo-Beilun is mentioned initially (0:25 to 0:29).
  11. Concerts bechstein.com
  12. ^ Bechstein: C. Bechstein piano competitions. In: bechstein.com. Retrieved May 25, 2015 .
  13. Founder and board member carl-bechstein-stiftung.de
  14. Pianos for elementary schools carl-bechstein-stiftung.de
  15. Carl Bechstein competition carl-bechstein-stiftung.de
  16. a b CDs & DVDs at bechstein.com.
  17. Alexander Scriabin: Letters. With contemporary documents and an essay by Michail Druskin . Edited and translation of Scriabin's letters and documents from Russian by Christoph Hellmundt; Translation of the essay by Michail Druskin by Gertraude Krueger. Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1988 (= Reclams Universal-Bibliothek, Vol. 1260: Kunstwissenschaften) ISBN 3-379-00360-3 , p. 311.