Carl Bechstein

Carl Bechstein was born on 1 June 1826 in Gotha, in Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (now Thuringia). He studied and worked in France and England as a piano craftsman, before he became an individual piano maker. His first pianos were made for other companies. From 1844 to 1848 he worked in Dresden for a local piano maker, then moved to Berlin and worked at Klavierfabrik Perau in Behrenstraße 56. In 1849 he worked as a hired contractor for piano makers in Paris. Back in Berlin he worked again for Klavierfabrik Perau in 1852-53. The C. Bechstein piano factory was founded on 1 October 1853 by Carl Bechstein in Berlin. Carl Bechstein set out to manufacture a piano able to withstand the great demands imposed on the instrument by the virtuosi of the time, such as Franz Liszt.