The following information was kindly made available to me by Bridgitte Conrad of Hohner Musikinstrumente.  (I contacted her at bconrad@hohner.de).  She informed me that the company had little or no information regarding their manufacture of saxophones but she did send me an article on the subject (in German).  I have been able to extract some information from the article but have insufficient knowledge of German to be able to decipher it completely, or to identify the source.  So far the table of serial numbers seems to check out satisfactorily.

 

The results together with some other research are summarized below.  Please feel free to use whatever information you need for your site.

 

 

HohnerPresident”Saxophones

Hohner (1857–2007), well known for the manufacture of accordions and harmonicas, manufactured in Trossingen from 1949 to 1972 a range of Hohner “President” badged alto and tenor saxophones under the direction of Max Keilwerth (1898-1968)  .  Other sources set the period of manufacture as 1948 to 1967; however the table below suggests that production in some form or other continued well after Max Kielwerth’s demise.

 

Much of the early data regarding the Keilwerth brothers Max and Julius (Julius being the elder of the two) is disjointed.  Suffice it to say that apart from an indication that Max learnt his early skills within some form of local or ‘cottage’ industry, and subsequently joined at least Franz Than Graslitz/Sudetenland, F.X. Hüller Graslitzer and Amati as well as the Keilwerth companie/s.

 

It appears that Julius, his son Joseph and grandson Gerhart didn’t hold formal craftsmanship papers (Meisterbrief) as did Max.  Max Kielwerth commenced at Hohner some time in the 1940’s however there are no records of the production for the factory and the information below is a compilation from various sources; the data supplied by Bridgitte Conrad being main source.

 

A common feature of the Hohners is the Patented ‘Double Socket’ and knurled screw for attachment of the neck.

 

 

 

Year     Serial Number    Tone Hole          Stamp

1949     1                      Soldered           Hohner

1950     500                   Soldered           Hohner 

1951     1000                 Soldered           Hohner

1952     1800                 Soldered           Hohner

1953     2600                 Flanged/Rolled   Hohner

1954     3400                 Flanged/Rolled   Hohner

1955     4200                 Flanged/Rolled   Hohner

1956     5000                 Flanged/Rolled   Hohner

1957     6000                 Flanged/Rolled   Hohner 

1958     7000                 Flanged/Rolled   Hohner

1959     8000                 Flanged/Rolled   Hohner

1960     9000                 Flanged/Rolled   Hohner

1961     10000               Flanged/Rolled   Harmonica Mannequin

1962     11000               Flanged/Rolled   Harmonica Mannequin

1963     12000               Straight/Cut       Harmonica Mannequin

1964     13000               Straight/Cut       Harmonica Mannequin

1965     13500               Straight/Cut       Harmonica Mannequin

1966     14000               Straight/Cut       Harmonica Mannequin

1967     14500               Straight/Cut       Harmonica Mannequin

1968     14800               Straight/Cut       Harmonica Mannequin

1969     15200               Straight/Cut       Harmonica Mannequin

1970     15600               Straight/Cut       Harmonica Mannequin

1971     15800               Straight/Cut       Harmonica Mannequin

1972     16000               Straight/Cut       Harmonica Mannequin

 

                 

Hohner                          Mannequin