[Harp-L] Re: Hohner Star of David

[MilwHarmonica@xxxxxxx]

Hello, Jack Wartell.
 
There is no information found about the reason for the use of the 6-pointed 
 star in the Hohner logo, religious or otherwise. There are also several 
other  harmonica companies that used the 6-pointed star in their logos at that 
time,  for reasons known only to them.
 
It's very possible that the Hohner 6-pointed star was a Jewish Star of  
David, as the German government claimed in World War Two, when the government  
asked the Hohner company to remove the star from the center of the Hohner 
logo,  between the two hands.
 
Hohner's factories in the city of Trossingen,  a primarily Catholic  area 
of Germany, could have placed a different meaning to the Hohner logo.
 
Another widely accepted theory is that the 6-pointed star was a symbol for  
the 6 Hohners running the company in 1902. That's the year that the founder 
 Matthias Hohner passed away. 
 
The 6-pointed star was used until the mid 1910s, when a 5-pointed star was  
used along with the 6-pointed logo. The 6-star was continued in use until 
about  1937, when the German government asked that it be removed. Hohner 
covers  manfactured after 1937 have no star in the central logo, but some 
6-point star  spare parts leftover from the earlier years were still in use to 
about  1950.
 
Hohner's reasons for the mysterious markings on the harps' covers will  
remain mysterious until someone provides evidence to prove one theory or  
another. 
 
There was an 8-pointed star used pre-1900 in some Hohner models that was  
also never explained.
 
Althought the 6-pointed star in the central logo has not returned in recent 
 covers, It's all over the place (a smaller version) on the Hohner 270 
chromatic  harmonica, as it has been since about 1928.
 
John Broecker