Panel 6 The Road to Industrialisation

Mechanical Engineering and Toolmaking

In its entirety, the blossoming of musical instrument making in industrial production (with its particularities of the homeworkers’ industry) up to the present, in the context of economic and cultural change, offers the city of Klingenthal a special aspect of industrial culture in Saxony: A scattered settlement spread over a length of almost 16 kilometres morphed into a large-scale manufacturing network starting in 1829.
By 1860, harmonica and button accordion companies were producing about 3 million harmonicas and about 250,000 hand-drawn instruments such as harmonicas, concertinas, bandoneons, and accordions annually.
In 1871, the Plauen Chamber of Commerce and Industry counted 347 harmonica and 663 button accordion manufacturers in the Klingenthal area.
In addition, there were thousands of homeworkers, suppliers and dozens of globally active trading companies.

In 1913, the Klingenthal production covered two thirds of the world’s demand for button accordions! This was made possible because of special inventions in toolmaking and mechanical engineering, which made the machine-based mass production of individual parts for these instruments possible in the first place.
The advancing industrialisation with the development of smaller manufactories into industrial firms under middle-class emancipated management led to prosperity.
At that time, the reed was not only the proverbial “tip of the scales” that decisively helped Klingenthal on its way to industrialisation: Manufactured by machine millions of times over from metals such as brass and steel, it made harmonicas and button accordions sound and thus also carried the reputation of the music town of Klingenthal all over the world.

Especially the harmonica and button accordion construction was particularly suitable in its structure for industrial production: The individual parts were of simple construction, but they were required in millions of pieces with the highest possible precision. Unlike, for example, in the more individual metal wind or plucked instrument making, the use of machines was of considerable advantage in reed instrument making: As a result, instruments were quickly available in almost any quantity and identical sound quality with a short manufacturing time.
In 1928, there were 73 harmonica factories in Klingenthal with 1350 workers (830 men and 520 women) as well as a roughly equal number of “home craftsmen” who mainly supplied those same harmonica factories with individual parts. Among the estimated 3500 homeworkers were 2700 women and 800 men. Children also often helped to secure the livelihood of the families.

At the end of the 1920s, the number of workers employed in the harmonica industry in the area of the Klingenthal district court was estimated at around 10,000.
The fact that such a high number of workers was needed, despite the development of machines, was due to two reasons in particular: Although machines now ensured a high quantity of individual parts, the tuning and final assembly of the harmonicas and button accordions depended on human experience and craftsmanship. This continues to be true to the present day. On the other hand, real wages were so low at that time, especially in the homeworker and supplier sectors, that in some cases it was not worth investing in new expensive production lines and thus in perhaps necessary new factory buildings. Thus, many small factories and even more home-based jobs remained characteristic.

It was not until after the Second World War during the GDR period that reed instrument production was rationalised through the formation of larger production units, components were standardised and individual part production was also further industrialised through further machine improvements and the use of new materials. This significantly reduced the proportion of homeworkers.
To this day, mechanical engineering and toolmaking are important economic production branches in the Ringing Valley. Several hundred jobs in the field of tool and special machine construction have their origin in the special needs of musical instrument manufacturing.


Ernst Julius Berthold

...and the tone-setting reed: The inventions of the mechanical engineer of Klingenthal have given a new dimension to musical instrument making all over the world...

•    In 1868, the trained locksmith came to Klingenthal at the invitation of a work colleague and stayed for the sake of love: Married to the daughter of a factory owner, he quickly recognised the special needs of instrument making and soon set up his own factory to manufacture special machines.
•    From 1870 onwards, Ernst Julius Berthold initially improved hand-operated special tools before he finally invented machines driven by steam and water, which automated the work processes of individual manufacturing operations and thus considerably accelerated them.
•    In 1878, the first "double reed milling machine” manufactured by Ernst Julius Berthold according to his own patent went into operation in the Leiterd factory - one of the largest harmonica producers of its time. It produced considerable quantities of reeds in a short time with great accuracy. This was the decisive technical prerequisite for manufacturing up to 3 million harmonicas and hundreds of thousands of button accordions annually in the Klingenthal area. This is because the reed (a narrow elongated metal blade) is the tone-giving element of all mouth and hand harmonicas, which is made to vibrate at supersonic speed by means of an air current.
•    In 1913, the musical instrument production in the Klingenthal area covered more than half of the world's demand for harmonicas.
•    Ernst Julius Berthold’s inventions paved the way for industrial series production in many areas of musical instrument making.
•    The world renown which Klingenthal achieved with it finally led to the award of the city charter in 1919.
•    Ernst Julius Berthold remained loyal to his adopted home of Klingenthal even after leaving his company and donated a park-like piece of land to the citizens for recreation. Today, the city’s zoo is located on it.