Steingraeber dates itself twice: to the 1820s, and to 1852.

Steingraeber tells its beginning carefully. “The story begins in the 1820s… with the Steingraeber & Söhne piano factory in Thuringia,” its history page says, and the homepage adds: “Founded in 1820 nearby Weimar.” We give the decade, by the company’s own account. The date on its logo is a different one: in 1852 the second generation, Eduard Steingraeber, moved to Bayreuth, where he built an “Opus 1” that, the company says, combined the Viennese and English styles of piano action. The firm has made pianos in that Franconian town ever since; its strapline is “Piano Manufactory in Bayreuth since 1852.” It says it has won international prizes since 1867 and has had its cases drawn by well-known designers since 1906 — the start of a habit of treating the case as a design object, not just furniture.

In 1871 Eduard bought a rococo palace of 1754 on Friedrichstraße, and it is still the company’s home. Its concert hall, the Rokokosaal, holds what the company calls its “Liszt grand piano,” dated 1873, and hosts dozens of events a year.

The family is still in charge. Udo Schmidt-Steingraeber, the sixth generation, ran the firm from 1980; the German piano makers’ association, the Bundesverband Klavier (BVK), now describes it as run by Fanny and Alban Steingraeber in the seventh generation, with their parents as advisers. The legal company is Steingraeber & Söhne Piano- und Flügelfabrik KG, registered in Bayreuth. Its homepage’s first pillar reads: “The most traditional brand – 100% family run.”

Liszt’s technician. Wagner’s bells. A stake it says it would not sell.

Steingraeber’s history is entangled with two composers. The company says Eduard met Franz Liszt in 1846, while working at the Streicher piano firm in Vienna, and became his concert technician; from 1878 Liszt was, it says, “a frequent guest” in the Rokokosaal. In July 1886, the firm supplied Liszt’s last Steingraeber, a model 205, production number 4328 — the template for today’s “C-212 Liszt.” Liszt died in Bayreuth at the end of that month.

Richard Wagner came next. In the spring of 1879, the company says, Wagner asked Eduard for a piano-like instrument to sound the four bell pitches of Parsifal — C, G, A and E — with strings planned at 220 centimetres and hammers 8 centimetres wide. The commission was given in August 1881. Steingraeber still lists “Parsifal Bells” among its works.

The modern chapter turns on ownership. In 2016, Piano Buyer reported that Steingraeber had partnered with Pearl River, the state-owned Guangzhou maker, to build concert grands for China under Pearl River’s Kayserburg name, and that a letter of intent followed in 2015. Schmidt-Steingraeber told the magazine it “came to nothing when he declined to sell Pearl River a stake in his company.” Pearl River went on to buy a 90 per cent stake in Schimmel in 2016 instead, and the partnership ended. That is his account, and we report it as such; it is also the clearest statement of what Steingraeber’s brand is built on.

“100% made in Bayreuth.” A member of the association — not on its seal list.

Steingraeber’s origin claim is as local as a claim can be: “all Steingraeber upright and grand pianos are manufactured 100% in the festival city of Bayreuth,” and, on its homepage, “The most authentic brand – Production facilities only in Bayreuth.” It says its share of domestic materials has risen to 90 per cent, from an 80 per cent figure attested by a craft-trade certifier — its own figures, which we attribute.

Germany’s piano makers have their own seal for such claims. The BVK says it certifies “nur solche Marken von Herstellern … welche zu 100 % in Deutschland hergestellt werden” — only brands made 100 per cent in Germany. When we read its list in October 2026, the certified piano brands were Blüthner, Blüthner Digital, Haessler, Rönisch, Thürmer and Pfeiffer. Steingraeber appears on the association’s member list, but not on the certified list. An archived version of the certified list from March 2015 did include “Steingraeber & Söhne” — misspelt — alongside Sauter, Schimmel, Grotrian and August Förster. Piano Buyer has reported that a certificate, once granted, is good for two years. We do not know why the name no longer appears, and we do not guess: it is a fact about two lists on two dates, not a judgement on where the pianos are made, and Piano Buyer itself cautions that absence from the list “does not necessarily prove that its instruments are not made in Germany.” It shows that the seal and the claim are separate things, and that a maker can make the claim without the seal.

Its innovations are those of a small workshop. The Mozart Rail reduces key dip from 10 to 8 millimetres for a lighter touch, based on a pianissimo pedal George Steingraeber developed in 1894. A carbon-fibre soundboard, developed with the British engineer Richard Dain, is offered in every model. And the firm makes pedal systems for wheelchair users: tilt sensors in a bicycle helmet, switches in a neck brace, and a mouth actuator developed with Heidelberg University Clinic. A “Sordino,” an “SFM” action and a transducer piano round out a list whose oldest patent, the company says, dates from 1885. For a maker that Piano Buyer put at about 80 grands and 60 uprights a year in 2016, it is a long list of inventions — and the strongest argument for the second pillar on its homepage.

A crown, a shield made of keys, and a town’s name in place of the sons.

Steingraeber’s homepage is a list of superlatives that ends on a modest one: “The most traditional brand,” “The most innovative brand,” “The most authentic brand,” “The oldest high-end brand” — and “The smallest brand.” The company says it employs around 35 craftspeople. In the world of piano branding, where size is usually the boast, smallness is the point.

The logo is a crown over a shield made of piano keys, above the spaced capitals “STEINGRAEBER” and “BAYREUTH 1852,” in amber. The company says it was designed by Professor Peter Schmidt, and that it dropped “& Söhne” from the brand while adding “Bayreuth.” It notes that the “sons” were once replaced by a daughter, Lily Steingraeber, about a century ago. Exchanging a family claim for a place name is a strong choice for a company whose argument is that it is made in one town only.

For this guide we use an amber and a pale gilt with a spaced serif. These are an unofficial interpretation, not Steingraeber’s colour values, and nothing of its crown or wordmark is reproduced.

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