Welte-Mignon

In 1872, the firm moved from the remote Black Forest town of Vöhrenbach into a newly developed business complex beneath the main railway station in Freiburg, Germany.

They created an epoch-making development when they substituted the playing gear of their instruments from fragile wood pinned cylinders to perforated paper rolls.

"It automatically replayed the tempo, phrasing, dynamics and pedalling of a particular performance, and not just the notes of the music, as was the case with other player pianos of the time."

[1] As a result of this invention by Edwin Welte (1876–1958) and his brother-in-law Karl Bockisch (1874–1952), one could now record and reproduce the music played by a pianist as true to life as was technologically possible at the time.

As a result of the Alien Property Custodian enactment during the First World War, the company lost their American branch and all of their U.S. patents.

Later the Great Depression and the mass production of new technologies like the radio and the electric record player in the 1920s virtually brought about the demise of the firm and its expensive instruments.

The last big theatre organ was a custom-built instrument for the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NORAG) broadcasting company in Hamburg, still in place and still playing today.

In 1932 the firm, now with Karl Bockisch as sole owner, barely escaped bankruptcy, and began to concentrate on the production of church and other speciality organs.

The production of these organs - in cooperation with the Telefunken Company – was halted by the Nazi-government because the inventor, Edwin Welte, was married to Betty Dreyfuss, who was Jewish.

This included the entire combination action in the console and the manual relays in the church basement and the repair of the massive 25 HP DC motor that powered the Spencer Turbine blower.