“We engineer music – that’s our slogan. We develop and make musical instruments here in Adorf – or we discover where there are good centres, with which we can cooperate. Our team includes musicians, engineers, technicians and sales personnel.”

The headquarters of GEWA are not particularly eye-catching from the outside. Many people are familiar with the red brick building when they drive along the B 92 main road in Adorf. Some people are unaware that it houses a heavyweight in the world of musical instruments.

Brass, plucked, string and percussion instruments, their accessories and suitable cases – they are all products that form part of GEWA’s business – and it produces some of them in Adorf. The complete range involves almost 40,000 items. The first managing director and sole proprietor Hans-Peter Messner has this to say. “After German reunification in 1990, there was only one channel open to the company – back to the Vogtland region. That’s where the roots of GEWA are located – and the region has the central European skills for making musical instruments and their accessories.”

A long tradition in Adorf

“GEWA music” celebrated a milestone birthday in 2015: GEorg WAlther founded the company in 1925 – i.e. exactly 90 years ago. The first letters of his name still provide the company with its identity. Hans-Peter Messner explains, “As a result of the threat of expropriation after the Second World War, the company headquarters were moved to Mittenwald in Bavaria. The head office remained there for 40 years. The history of “GEWA music” was linked to the personal career of Hans-Peter Messner in Mittenwald. He comes from Trossingen in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, where the head office of what was once the major accordion and mouth organ manufacturer Hohner was located. By his own account, he was confronted by musical instrument making and playing instruments there at an early age. The Berlin Wall collapsed during his third year at GEWA. “We wanted to expand in Europe. To achieve this, we realised that we needed to move to where instrument making has its home – i.e. in the Vogtland region.

“We have a good working relationship with Technisat in Schöneck – it supplies us with high-quality printed circuit boards. As a result, we’re in a position to make products in the digital sphere with the “Made in Germany” label too.

The company also managed to maintain links with Adorf during the complete 40-year period.” Why did the Vogtland region seem so suitable? Messner replies, “We had problems obtaining enough qualified personnel; instrument makers with their expertise are based here. The trained workers from the technical college in Markneukirchen or the vocational college in Klingenthal often find their way to our company.” He adds, “If you have your headquarters in Adorf, you are located at the centre of Europe. We can serve most countries in 1-2 days, including Poland, the Netherlands and Scandinavia – that wouldn’t have been possible from Mittenwald. It wasn’t possible to expand our range either until we arrived in Adorf, because we were only able to find the specialists for the individual product lines here.” “GEWA music” shut down its operations in Mittenwald for good in 2008. It now supplies 7,000 specialist stores all over the world with 270,000 shipments per year and its turnover is more than EUR 80 million. The Adorf business site with its 260 employees has also been making digital pianos since 2014.

“In addition to my work at GEWA, I ensure that I have some free space. If possible, I spend time with my family on Lake Constance. That’s where I’ve set up my place of retreat.”

Vita Hans-Peter Messner

• Born in Trossingen (Baden-Württemberg) in 1952
• Studied business management and economics until 1976
• After this, authorised signatory at the musical instrument manufacturer, Hohner
• Managing director at GEWA from 1987 onwards
• Sole proprietor of GEWA from 2002 onwards (four managers have divided up the work divisions since 2013)