August Förster Piano Manufactory
Jahnstraße 8
Anna, around 1910
» This is where my beautiful piano was made. One Sunday morning, I was walking past here with my dear Papa, and he told me all about how grand pianos are made. He also told me that my beloved grandfather knew old August Förster. He began making these pianos his little flat, and his success allowed him to build a factory here. «
Anna, around 1910
» This is where my beautiful piano was made. One Sunday morning, I was walking past here with my dear Papa, and he told me all about how grand pianos are made. He also told me that my beloved grandfather knew old August Förster. He began making these pianos his little flat, and his success allowed him to build a factory here. «
Demand for musical instruments grew as the middle class expanded: Playing music at home was very fashionable in the 19th century, not least as a way of showing off one's education and cultural interests. Friedrich August Förster was born in Oberseifersdorf near Zittau in 1829. Having trained as a carpenter, he went on to learn the basics of piano making from the Löbau piano makers Hieke and Eule. August Förster was drawn to travel further afield and gathered experience in various German cities.
Back in Löbau in 1859, he set up a modest workshop in a cheap Hinterhaus tenement flat and built his first piano there, all by himself. The first building of his piano factory appeared on Jahnstrasse only three years later. And in 1900, he opened a subsidiary in the Bohemian town of Georgswalde (today: Jiříkov). The family business still manufactures grand and upright pianos, largely by hand.
