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Good day all,

I'm planning a trip through Europe this summer, and am interested in arranging tours of various piano manufacturers. I found some information on a few makers, such as Steingraeber in Bayreuth which seems to welcome visitors, but was having difficulty finding others. Even if it isn't possible to tour the factory, just a showroom visit to play some of the best pianos in the world would be wonderful. I unfortunately don't have the means to buy one of these instruments right now, and therefore understand that some of these companies may not want to bother with me--but I hope that at least some will recognize me as a potential future customer (in 20 or 30 years :)).

Here are the main makers I was interested in... if anyone else has suggestions, let me know:
-Steinway (Hamburg)
-Bosendorfer (Vienna)
-Wilh. Steinberg (Eisenberg)
-Bluthner (Leipzig)
-Petrof (Prague?)

Thanks!

Bechstein (Seifhennersdorf)
Sauter (Spaichingen)
Seiler (Kitzingen)
Förster (Löbau)
Schimmel (Braunschweig)
Grotrian-Steinweg (Braunschweig)

For the best uprights visit Pfeiffer Piano's in Leonberg (Near Stuttgart - Germany). They seem to be very special.

As Gregor mentions, if you go to Braunschweig and have the time, you get to visit two factories!

And the Grotrian factory allows you to take pictures

Fazioli; I don't know how friendly they are to tourists, but they have the F308 which is a hard model to find elsewhere

I did such a tour before. Be aware that many factories close in the summer period, well at least they don't do factory tours...

I've visited the Petrof and Bohemia piano factories. They are both in Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. Even had tea with Bohemia's manager/chief of staff amid pianos in their showroom.

But I was actively looking for a piano at the time, and the exchange rate and special import status from Czech Rep. was very favorable 14 years ago.

Grotrian and Schimmel in/near Braunschweig.
1 1/2 hours from Hamburg - a must see.

Norbert

Be sure to take a lot of video, and share!

As far as I know you're not allowed to in the majority of the factories isn't it?
Grotrian allows you.

That is true. There are portions of each factory where you may take photos and video, but some prefer that parts of their processes remain private to the general public and competitors.

Actually, I am in Europe at the moment, and have just visited the Estonia, Grotrian, Steingraeber and Sauter factories. I have pictures that I will post to our company Facebook page so as not to offend anyone with blatant promotion. Of course, there are certain pictures that, for competitive reasons, I won't share, but if you visit the factories, they are most generous in the amount of video you can take.

I don't know when you're planning to travel, but keep in mind that most European factories close for either July or August, or some of both.

It is not only recommendable to tour some piano factories but also piano museums. ... or museums with a lot of interesting pianos ...

If possible, my hints would be to visit (sorted roughly from North to South):

Hamburg (Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe) opposite Main Railway Sttion (Hauptbahnhof)

Seesen west of the Harz mountains (Elizabeth room, a donation of William Steinway for the Stadtmuseum named after hs 2nd wife Elisabeth Ranft Steinway, there is the first New York built Steinway square no. 483 , and a most recommendable parlor grand serial no. 8xxx of 1864, greetings to Mr. Orend who does a VERY nice and interesting Steinway-family-explaning tour... and the loooooongest functioning piano string of 10 meters...)

Münster Westfälisches Landesmuseum (with a lot of westphalian pianos)

Leipzig, Sammlung der Universität (with one of the three surviving Cristofori grands, the one from 1722 - I was not yet there.. )

Speyer (in the Wilhelmsbau of the Techical Museum, w. one of the very last Steinway concert grands with open pinblock from 1878 // the museum dates the piano falsely to 1869.. ;-) // , combined with a player machine)

Nürnberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum (two of the Chopin era pianos side to side, an Erard and a Pleyel grand of the 1840ies, very interesting to look into their different framing...)

München Deutsches Museum (on the Isar island) with the (regd. it's voice) tiniest Steinway D I ever was confronted with... ;-)


And if you promise to go to some museums I promise to add to this list...
;-)

Best regards and have a lot of fun in Germany and in the factories!

Bernd B

Bernd B,

I am very glad you spoke up. I intend to do the German tour as well in the foreseeable future, probably the middle band of the country between Frankfurt and Berlin (so Hamburg is out).

Thanks to you, in the above post and others, we are informed about the museum in Seesen. I will try to go.

Can you inform according to your judgement about which piano makers in Germany will be most accepting of -
-showroom tours?
-factory tours - if asked by email in advance?

I hope Steingraeber & Söhne will be one that is accommodating.

Many thanks to all the interesting posters above and best regards-

Thanks Bernd and everyone else for the info! Unfortunately my trip occurs in the majority of July and the first week of August so I guess I will miss at least some of these places. I will email the different manufacturers and see what they say.

Regarding Fazioli, they do have a showroom in Milan which seems easier to get to than their factory... I've never actually seen one of their pianos (they're quite rare in the US, it seems) so I'd definitely like to check it out.

I'll be traveling by train (Eurail pass) so the museum in Hamburg would be quite convenient for me. Just out of curiosity, does the Steinway factory there offer tours like the one in New York?