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.

Hohner “President”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