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

[pneupco@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Dave,

The star symbol on Hohner harmonicas had nothing to do with Weiss. It 
was just part of their trademark and it was used from the earliest 
times. It wasn't a religous thing, either - they (the Hohners) were 
good Lutherans. I have a Marine Band from about 1905 - plated brass 
coverplates, etc. It has the star symbol.

As far as when they got rid of the star goes, I read someplace (I was 
trying to find where I read it so I could cite it, but with no luck) 
that at sometime in the late 1930s, a local Nazi official stopped by 
the Hohner factory and told them that it might be a good idea to get 
rid of the star, so as not to offend Hitler. Hohner took the hint.

Hope this helps some.

Paul N.




-----Original Message-----
From: David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sender: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2011 17:45:40 To: Harp L Harp L<harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] now Star, was Hohner Chromonika III

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.