Re: [Harp-L] now Star, was Hohner Chromonika III

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

There has never emerged a exact account of why the star was added/removed, but 
my best guess and Ive yet to hear a more plausible suggestion, was it was added 
after the Hohner/ Weiss merger in the 1920s because that star was the Weiss 
trademark and it appears on the Hohner trademark about the time of the merger.  
The Weiss heir got a high level executive position at Hohner as part of the 
agreement. The six sided star appears to have been dropped around 1937. that was 
the year that Hohner was set up at the German display at this exhibition In 
Paris, where the German and Soviet booths were right next to each other and the 
national displays turned into this big personal pissing match between Hitler and 
Stalin. It was an extremely high profile thing as a result and every detail was 
freaked out about by the nazi and soviet high brass. You see only a handful of 
harmonicas bearing the medal from 1937 Paris with the star on the trademark, 
most do not. In fact, i have only seen one harmonica with both. It was an Unsere 
Liebling. My belief is the ones bearing the medal and star were made before the 
exhibition to offer for sale there, that's why they are rare. My guess is it got 
noticed there and susequently the star was eliminated. I've never found direct 
evidence of this, only circumstancial, so I call it the Elk River star 
hypothesis.
Of course, it had nothing to do with promoting religion, if you look at 
something like the The New Best Quality or the original Old Standby (pre WWI) 
you see the crescent moon and star straight out of Islam. The Hohners were no 
more Jewish than they were Islamic. 

There were probably a half dozen companies using the six sided star in the late 
1800s probably as a way to cash in on Wess' popularity, or maybe they just liked 
it, but that putting thst star on trademarks started with Weiss. For the first 
40 years or so Weiss was the company Hohner tried to emulate.

Dave Payne, Sr.
www.elkriverharmonicas.com (in the process of going back up)




________________________________
From: steve warner <10reedsbent@xxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tue, March 1, 2011 10:59:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Hohner Chromonika III

Great score, Ken!
I have one too.    First time I blew mine  I sucked in a dried up old
moth.  A friend who doesn't play harp had this thing and just came over one
day and said, "I'm cleaning up the garage and I have something for ya."

***Now look closely on the bottom side and see if it has the Jewish 6 point
star between the hands right in the center.
I've attached a picture.
This star was removed when those Nazi SOB's were in the process of wiping
out, well, you know the disgusting story.  I  can't remember exactly, but
pushing 1940 is when this happened.