Steinway Piano (part 1)

Steinway-a resounding name: pianists and composer throughout the world love it. It stands for the finest quality and expert crafting, for concert grand and luxury-class pianos. And nothing has changed for 150 years. Steinway grand can be found in the world’s great concert halls, everywhere between Tokyo and New York.
But the Steinway story had its beginnings in the tiny town of Wolfshagen in the Harz mountains in the central Germany, on that bitterly cold day in 1797 when Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg was born. Little Heinrich, the youngest of twelve children in he family of Steinweg the forester, is slightly different from the rest. Of delicate build and highly musical, he is not exactly suited to his father’s kind of work. He thinks of becoming a carpenter-yes, that would be more to his liking. But first of all his country calls, and he dutifully goes to war.
Instead of a rifle he is armed with a bugle which he blows on June 18, 1815 at the legendary battle of Waterloo. And while his fellow soldiers are cleaning their weapons, Heinrich sits in camp skillfully making zithers and mandolins.



The war ends and Heinrich Steinweg returns in mourning. All of his seven brothers and his father have lost their lives in the war. As the only remaining man in the family he now bears heavy responsibilities. He begins his apprenticeship as a cabinet maker. His dream is to build musical instruments, but the strict rules of the guilds prevent this. Heinrich finds work in an organ builders’ workshop and decides to learn to play the organ. He spends every one of his rare free moments practicing until he becomes a church organist. All men are equal in the eyes of God and the rich and the poor meet at church. Heinrich Steinweg is still one of the poor when, one day, he catches sight of a charming young lady, Julianne Thiemer, who comes from a prosperous family. In February 1825, he married the love of his life. The happy groom has thought up something very special as a wedding present: he proudly presents his first Tafelklavier. A square piano of the highest quality secretly constructed in months of meticulously work.

The Steinweg marriage is happy-and fertile. Their first son Christian Friedrich Theodor is born on November 6th in their wedding year. In the following years, Juliane has four more boys and two girls while Heinrich steadily earns the money needed for the growing family. Ten years after the wedding he fulfills his lifelong dream and opens his first piano workshop in Seesen in the Harz mountains.