Wilhelm Schimmel piano factory

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Wilhelm Schimmel Pianofortefabrik GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1885
Seat Braunschweig
management Zhaoyin Chen (Managing Director)
Branch Piano and grand piano construction
Website www.schimmel-piano.de

The Wilhelm Schimmel piano factory GmbH is a wing and piano manufacturer with headquarters in Braunschweig , Germany. The company's founder Wilhelm Schimmel opened his first workshop in Leipzig in 1885 . The company remained family-owned for several generations. The main shareholder today is the Chinese company Pearl River Piano Group .

history

From the beginning until 1931

Company founder Wilhelm Schimmel

The company founder Wilhelm Schimmel was born on September 8, 1854 in Alt-Ohlisch (today Stará Oleška, Czech Republic ) as the son of the village tailor Benedikt Schimmel and his wife Clara. At the age of 14, Wilhelm Schimmel began an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker . He took over his enthusiasm for making instruments from his father, who u. a. earned extra income by repairing instruments. At the beginning of his apprenticeship, Wilhelm made a harmonica and a violin . However, he initially remained loyal to the joinery for a few years. At the age of 22 he was foreman in a large carpentry workshop.

In 1879 he started working at the piano factory Stichel in Leipzig. He was a docile student who had his desire for independence firmly in mind. In 1885 he founded his own company in Neuschönefeld (now Leipzig). Under the motto “the best possible instrument at a reasonable price”, he produced technically advanced pianos and grand pianos, which quickly found widespread sales.

Factory in Leipzig, 1897

On March 1, 1894, the 1000th instrument left the Schimmel workshops, which by then had to move to larger premises twice due to lack of space. The last change of location for the time being was made in 1897. Wilhelm Schimmel had his own factory built. The new company domicile was located on an area of ​​4000 m² in Leipzig- Stötteritz . The work rooms of the building were on 3 floors plus the ground floor and basement including the concert and exhibition hall.

The instruments of the Schimmel brand are characterized by good playability and a highly developed repetition mechanism as well as their sound. The company already belonged to the group of recognized piano manufacturers in Leipzig, which at that time was a center of German piano manufacturing alongside Berlin .

By the 25th anniversary of the company, the company also gained an international reputation and received special recognition through the title of purveyor to the court of the Grand Duke of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach and purveyor to the court of the King of Romania. The instruments received their first gold medals at the world fairs in 1913 and 1914. The development of technical innovations always had a high priority for Wilhelm Schimmel. For example, a self-playing piano called Ducanola was manufactured around 1915 in cooperation with the JD Philipps company, Frankfurt / Main .

Wilhelm Schimmel with colleagues, 1896

Wilhelm Schimmel was 73 years old when he handed over management to his son Wilhelm Arno Schimmel in 1927. The external circumstances made it difficult for the new owner. After the hyperinflation of 1923 , the next economic crisis soon emerged, starting on October 25, 1929, “ Black Friday ”. In addition, radio and gramophone became more and more popular, which made the production and sale of pianos and grand pianos even more difficult.

In order to take these developments into account, the Deutsche Piano-Werke AG was founded in December 1929 . It was an amalgamation of several manufacturers with the aim of standardizing certain work processes in order to better survive the difficult economic situation. The production sites of Piano-Werke AG were in Luckenwalde and Braunschweig . Higher-quality instruments were produced in the latter city, among them Schimmel pianos. The Schimmel wing production was initially continued in the Leipzig company. However, the permanent agreement of the various interests within the association turned out to be difficult. The cooperation turned out to be unsustainable.

1932 to 2000

Inside view of a wing of mold

Wilhelm Arno Schimmel succeeded in separating his company from the association. In 1932 he founded the "Wilhelm Schimmel Pianofortefabrik GmbH" in Braunschweig. The pre-war and war years made it difficult for the piano maker to do business. Schimmel developed a ratchet-less small piano (1935, model J 50) with a newly designed mechanism , the design of which corresponded to contemporary tastes and was one of the important new designs of the 1930s.

As a center of the aircraft industry, Braunschweig was the target of numerous Allied air raids early on during World War II . Large parts of the piano factory on Hamburger Strasse were destroyed in the bombing raid in October 1944 ; only a few offices escaped the fire. The production of the instruments has been suspended until further notice.

After the end of the war, the damaged facilities were restored; the focus was initially on woodwork and interior fittings of all kinds until the production of pianos and grand pianos was resumed in 1949. In the same year instruments were exhibited at the first export sample fair in Hanover. Schimmel was probably the first piano manufacturer in Germany that was able to deliver instruments from regular production again after the currency reform .

The 1950s were characterized by expansion and new developments. In 1951, for example, the world's first acrylic glass wing was presented at the trade fair in Düsseldorf , and in its revised form it is still an image carrier of the company today. Schimmel was the largest piano manufacturer based on sales figures in the German market.

In 1961 Wilhelm Arno Schimmel died unexpectedly. The management of the company passed to his son Nikolaus Wilhelm Schimmel (* 1934), who had both an apprenticeship as a piano maker and a commercial apprenticeship. The 1960s continued to be associated with an upswing in the piano manufacturing industry, and the factory soon began to suffer from a lack of space. In 1966, construction began on a new site in the south of Braunschweig, which met the new requirements. The previous premises and the factory building on Hamburger Straße were sold in 1983 to Schimmel-Hof GmbH, which was founded in the previous year and which today rents around 15,000 m² of usable space, mainly offices, to around 70 companies in the “Schimmel-Hof”.

In 1975, 7,500 instruments left the factory every year. In the early 1980s there were 10,000, including the pianos manufactured from 1972 to 1996 under the name Pleyel . On the company's 100th anniversary in 1985, the company founded by Wilhelm Schimmel was Germany's leading manufacturer of grand pianos and upright pianos. Two thirds of the annual production was exported to the European Union , North America and the Pacific region.

21st century

In 2003, Nikolaus W. Schimmel handed over the management of the company to his son-in-law Hannes Schimmel-Vogel. New product lines were introduced. Yamaha acquired a minority stake of 24.99% which was returned in 2009. The company was hit hard by the financial crisis in 2008, and two thirds of its business in the American market was lost. Orders fell by 40 percent and employees had to be laid off. In August 2009, Schimmel filed for bankruptcy and tried to save the remaining 144 jobs in Braunschweig. The planned insolvency was successfully ended on March 30, 2010. In the following years Schimmel expanded its presence in the Asian markets. The main focus was on China, the largest piano market in the world.

In order to adequately develop the very large Chinese market, the company established a strategic alliance in January 2016 with the Pearl River Piano Group in Guangzhou , the world's largest piano manufacturer. The Pearl River Piano Group took over 90% of the company shares. In the following years, Schimmel's presence in China expanded rapidly. In addition, the “Fridolin Schimmel” model series was specially developed for beginners and is manufactured in China in cooperation with Pearl River. In May 2019, Schimmel Pianos founded its own sales company in Guangzhou to intensify sales in China.

Products

Current series

  • Schimmel concert. Production in Braunschweig. Renner mechanics
  • Schimmel Classic. Production in Braunschweig. Renner mechanics
  • Schimmel International. Production in Braunschweig.
  • Wilhelm Schimmel. Manufacturing in Kalisz , Poland.
  • Fridolin . Manufactured by Pearl River Pianos

Discontinued series

  • Vogel by Schimmel. Manufacturing in Kalisz, Poland.
  • May Berlin. Manufactured in Berlin until 1990. Then: Manufacturing in China.
  • Érard - trademark rights sold to French owners, new pianos are no longer on the market.
  • Gaveau - like Érard
  • Pleyel - like Érard

particularities

Schimmel has long been known for bringing grand pianos onto the market alongside traditional instruments, which stand out due to their unusual design . It all started with the wing made of acrylic glass. At the latest when it was used on the concert stages of Udo Jürgens , this instrument became famous. The grand piano designed by Otmar Alt should also be mentioned. It attracts attention with its imaginative, colorful design. The “Pegasus” grand piano by designer Professor Luigi Colani breaks with the traditional design of the instrument. Here the entire instrument seems to float in space on an acrylic sheet. The stool is part of the wing body; the wing cover opens automatically.

production

Most of the development and production of the instruments takes place in Braunschweig, which is known as a piano-making stronghold. In addition to construction and prototype construction, most of the series production is also carried out here.

In total, up to 9,000 parts are used to manufacture an instrument, the vast majority of which are assembled by hand.

literature

  • Nikolaus [W.] Schimmel: Schimmel - a company introduces itself. Wilhelm Schimmel Pianofortefabrik, Braunschweig 1984.
  • From the music stick to the pianoforte. An introduction to the history of the piano - compiled in 1985 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Wilhelm Schimmel Pianofortefabrik GmbH. Text: Nikolaus W. Schimmel, Günther Batel. Wilhelm Schimmel Pianofortefabrik, Braunschweig 1987.
  • Nikolaus [W.] Schimmel: The musical mechanism for pianos. Function and regulation of keyboard and mechanics. Wilhelm Schimmel Pianofortefabrik, Braunschweig 1988.
  • Nikolaus W. Schimmel: Pianoforte construction - a handicraft / The history of the pianoforte instruments / The Schimmel family tradition. Wilhelm Schimmel Pianofortefabrik, Braunschweig 1995. 5., completely revised. and updated edition.
  • Nikolaus W. Schimmel, Hans K. Herzog, Gerhard Aspheim: Piano nomenclature. (in five languages). (= Das Musikinstrument , Vol. 14), Erwin Bochinsky Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-920112-19-9 .
  • Conny Restle (Ed.): Fascination Piano. 300 years of piano production in Germany. Prestel Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-7913-2308-3 .

Movie

  • Schimmel pianos. People with wings. Documentary, Germany, 2014, 43:10 min. Writer and director: Heinrich Billstein, Production: Eco Media, NDR , Series: Made in Northern Germany . First broadcast: December 3, 2014 on NDR, table of contents by NDR.

See also

Other piano manufacturers from Braunschweig:

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Schimmel Pianofortefabrik  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. The mold-courtyard schimmel-hof.de
  2. Michael Stallknecht: What a flute in the treble. The legendary French piano maker Pleyel ended production: a sign of change. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of December 30, 2013, p. 9.
  3. Schimmel rescued from bankruptcy Klassik.de, April 8, 2010.
  4. ^ After bankruptcy: Piano manufacturer Schimmel rescued In: Hamburger Abendblatt , March 30, 2010.
  5. Traditional piano maker. Schimmel files for bankruptcy. In: FAZ , August 4, 2009.
  6. a b Harmonische Klänge investmentplattformchina.de, August 16, 2016.
  7. Facing the music: how China is buying Germany's piano industry irishtimes.com, April 23, 2016.
  8. ^ A b Pearl River and Schimmel Alliance pianopricepoint.com
  9. Schimmel Pianos founds subsidiary in China regionalbraunschweig.de, May 31, 2019.

Coordinates: 52 ° 14 '24.2 "  N , 10 ° 29" 46.8 "  E