The August Forster piano manufacturing company (also rendered “Foerster,” occasionally “Forster,” officially “August Forster GmbH Kunsthandwerklicher Flugel-und-Pianobau”) currently has a staff of 40 employees and produces around 120 grand pianos and 150 uprights per year.

ABOUT AUGUST FORSTER

On April 1, 1859, August Forster opened a small piano workshop in Lobau, Germany, expanding to a factory on Lobau’s Jahn Street in 1862. Still in use today, this facility has been enlarged and modernized by the Forster family and remains the exclusive site for the manufacture of the original August Forster piano.

In 1897, Caesar Forster succeeded his father August as manager of the company and opened a second factory in Georgswalde (Jirikov), Bohemia (later Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic) in 1900.

In 1937 the company manufactured one of the first electric pianos, the “Vierling-Forster” piano, developed by Oskar Vierling at the Heinrich Institute for Oscillation Research at the Technical University of Berlin using electromagnetic pickups.

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n 1972, the final phase of East German nationalization transformed the company into the state-owned “VEB Fluegel-und-Pianobau Loebau.” Although still under the management of Wolfgang Forster, the company was annexed as part of the German Piano-Union, Leipzig. The family name was added back into the official company name in 1976, resulting in instruments branded “VEB Forster Pianos Loebau.” Also in 1976, the company began its first exports to the United States.
Noted Customers

Many prominent musicians have favoured the German-made Forster piano. Among them have been Richard Strauss and Sergei Prokofiev, both owners of Forster pianos, and Giacomo Puccini, who wrote a number of his operas while working at a Forster piano. Robert Fischer, Alex Duke and Anton Kuerti are also noted for their regard for the August Forster piano.

Taken from Wikipedia page.

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