Schimmel, a family of German piano makers. The factory was founded in 1885 near Leipzig by Wilhelm Schimmel (1854–1946). He was a carpenter by trade and initially made accordions and violins, and later learned piano making at the F. Stichel company in Leipzig. After eight years, he opened his own workshop in Leipzig and produced his first instrument in May 1885. The company produced inexpensive, good-quality pianos and grand pianos (and, after 1920, player pianos), exporting them to Russia, Italy and North America; by 1889, it had already reached an annual production of 2,500 instruments. In 1893, Wilhelm’s brother Fridolin emigrated to the United States, where he established his own piano factory; these were produced in parallel with the factory in Germany until 1911, initially under the Schimmel & Nelson brand, and after 1897 under the Schimmel & Company brand. In Germany, Wilhelm’s son, Wilhelm Arno (1898–1961), took over the company in 1927 and moved piano production to Brunswick in 1929, leaving the piano factory in Leipzig; three years later, he also moved it to Brunswick. In 1944, the factory building was destroyed by fire during the bombing of the city. After the war, the company mainly produced wooden products, but in 1949 it resumed production and intensified sales on global markets. By the end of the 1950s, the grand pianos and upright pianos manufactured by Wilhelm Schimmel Pianofortefabrik GmbH were the most frequently purchased German-made instruments in the world. From 1961 to 2003, the company was managed by Wilhelm Arno’s son, Nikolaus Wilhelm (1934–2024), who was succeeded in 2003 by his son-in-law, Hannes Schimmel-Vogel. In 1971, the company established cooperation with the French manufacturers Pleyel, Érard and Gaveau, eventually taking them over in 1974; in 1971, it also absorbed the Berlin-based May-Pianofortefabrik GmbH. Since the 1950s, the company has experimented with various technical solutions, fanciful instrument shapes and unusual materials (e.g. acrylic glass case). In the mid-1980s, it introduced computer-aided design and manufacturing (Computer Assisted Piano Engineering). At the end of the 1990s, alongside the traditional Classic line, a series of concert instruments called Konzert was created, designed to transfer the qualities of a large concert grand piano to smaller models. In order to maintain a line of instruments at more affordable prices, in mid-2003 it opened a production plant in Kalisz (Schimmel Fabryka Fortepianów sp. z o.o.), where medium-class Wilhelm Schimmel instruments are manufactured at lower production costs (150-200 grand pianos and 600 upright pianos per year), mainly for export. In 2009, the company was hit by a deep crisis and was forced to declare bankruptcy, but after restructuring, it soon resumed operations and expanded into Asian markets. In early 2016, the company decided to sell 90% of its shares to the world’s largest piano manufacturer, Pearl River Piano Group in Guangzhou, China. The company currently manufactures mid-range Fridolin Schimmel upright and grand pianos there, while higher-end instruments (the Classic and Konzert lines) are still produced at the company’s headquarters in Brunswick. The headquarters also houses an impressive collection of historical keyboard instruments.
Literature: 100 Jahre Pianofortefabrik Schimmel, “Musik International” XXXIX, 1985; G. Joppig Schimmel-Innovation in Piano Making, “Das Instrument” XXXIX, 1990; N.W. Schimmel Pianofortebau. Ein Kunsthandwerk, Brunszwik 1997; https://schimmelpianos.com.au/; https://pianina.pl/fortepian-fridolin-schimmel.
