Thomann, the hugely successful musical instrument retailer, these days best known for its global online sales operation, is today celebrating the life of its founder on what would have been his 100th birthday.
Hans Thomann Senior passed away in 2004, leaving his wife Betty and children - and a thriving business with strong foundations. He was born into a farming family in 1922 but, as the firm's loving tribute says "He didn't want to plow fields, clean out stables and bring in grain all his life.
"Hans Senior wanted to play. Preferably trumpet. And so the history of the Thomann music store takes its course."
“He was so talented,” raves daughter Gabriele about her father, who taught himself to play the saxophone, Hawaiian guitar and clarinet.
He made a career as a first trumpet and talented artist in the Circus Hellas, before founding Musikhaus Thomann in 1954 on his mother’s and father’s farm, initially as an itinerant sales business.
Later he established the firm's renowned store in Treppendorf, Germany, before the business made its first forays into online sales in 1996.
The rest, as they say, is history.
You can read much more about Hans Senior's story on the Thomann blog.
