Sonderausstellung
Trossingen and Klingenthal – World Centres of the Harmonica
15.09.2019 – 17.11.2019
Poster of the major Klingenthal manufacturer and mail-order company Meinel & Herold, around 1925
Drawing on the rich holdings of the state-owned Hohner collection—the collection of competitors’ models alone contains around 5,000 instruments—and supplemented by several loans, the exhibition presented almost two centuries of harmonica history. Particular attention was given to the many manufacturers in the Klingenthal region, the area known as the Musikwinkel or “music corner”.
Competition and interdependence
Market leader Matth. Hohner AG sometimes used questionable methods in its attempts to control its Saxon competitors. The attempt to establish a counterweight in the form of Rauner-Seydel-Böhm AG from 1929 onwards failed after only a few years.
During the 1920s, more than 5,000 people were employed in each of the two industrial centres. Together they produced over 50 million harmonicas every year for export around the world. Klingenthal was then home to more than 200 businesses, whereas Trossingen was dominated by the global market leader Matth. Hohner AG, which had absorbed all the other local manufacturers.
Fascinating history and remarkable stories
The German Harmonica Museum’s special exhibition was exceptionally diverse. It presented compelling historical developments and personal stories—including love stories. Contacts between the two harmonica towns were not always limited to business.
The exhibition also examined the more recent past. After 1945, the Iron Curtain divided the world. This had enormous consequences for the harmonica industry in the Vogtland region, which first lay in the Soviet occupation zone and later in East Germany.
Former Minister-President Lothar Späth with the one-billionth Hohner harmonica, 1987
The rapid decline of the industry around 1990 reunited the two harmonica centres in misfortune. Each had to fight for survival in its own way. Documents and eyewitness accounts provided a moving picture of this period. The exhibition’s largest object was a giant photograph of former Minister-President Lothar Späth with the one-billionth Hohner harmonica. In the late 1980s, it hung in the executive offices of Hohner AG in gratitude for the state government’s successful support during the company’s existential crisis.
Exceptional instruments from the Vogtland region
In addition to the instruments already displayed in the permanent exhibition and open-storage collection, the special exhibition presented another 30 exceptional free-reed instruments made by Klingenthal manufacturers and around 300 selected harmonicas from the Vogtland region.
