Brass instruments from the musical town of Graslitz

In Graslitz in the Erzgebirge (Czechoslovakia), as early as 1771, there were three trumpet makers, and in 1847 there were 20 master craftsmen employing 40 assistants. The basis for the Graslitz instrument makers' musical standards was eventually laid in 1865 with the opening of a new music school.

In the course of its 300-year development Graslitz gained a good reputation amongst all those who dealt with the international trade in musical instruments. No less than 98,896 brass instruments, 13,772 woodwind instruments and 4,553 saxophones were sent abroad from Graslitz alone in 1937. The best orchestras in the world had and still have Graslitz instruments. The conscientiousness and long experience of every manufacturer, and ultimately the ambition to supply only the best, made Graslitz a world-famous musical town.

The exodus of the inhabitants of Graslitz of necessity gave the musical instrument industry a new starting point. After the war about thirty experts from what had formerly been Graslitz, where they had worked in various musical instrument factories, joined together in a production cooperative. Armed with the few tools they had brought with them and the determination that Graslitz quality should survive, they founded in 1946, in Waldkraiburg in Upper Bavaria (FRG), the Production Cooperative of Graslitz Musical Instrument Makers. Their products came on to the market under the brand name Miraphone.