Over 40 concertinas and bandoneóns will be exhibited during the Tango Festival Chemnitz 2025 in the Hartmann Factory, where the locomotives of the Saxon locomotive king Richard Hartmann were once manufactured.
The bandoneóns are close and audible testimonies to the history of Chemnitz, Carlsfeld, Bohemia and Saxony, Krefeld and Buenos Aires... which have led to the world cultural heritage, the bandoneón and the Tango Argentino.
We would like to thank Heiko Guter from Kranwerk Naunhof for the exhibition and his tireless initiative, meticulous provision of instruments, information and experiences, which, together with bandoneonist Jürgen Karthe, make this history tangible and comprehensible.
Opening hours Hartmannfabrik:
Mon.-Sat. 10am-6pm
Sun. 10 am - 4 pm
The Tango Festival Chemnitz 2025 honours the inventor of the concertina, Carl Friedrich Uhlig, who first presented this instrument with five heads on each side on the left and right in Chemnitz in 1834 and whose origins can be found in the workshop/manufactory of that time about 40 metres from today's Karl Marx Monument. Carl Friedrich Uhlig and his apprentices - including Carl Friedrich Zimmermann - continued to develop the concertina. A wider range of tones with multiple rows of buttons and registers enabled a more extensive musical repertoire. The aim of providing an inexpensive instrument that could be played by anyone remained the same. Saxony, especially Carlsfeld, became a centre of instrument manufacture and since Heinrich Band in Krefeld gave the concertina its name, the instrument spread as the bandonion. The bandoneón made by Alfred Arnold as the "AA" from Carlsfeld is world-famous and associated with the Argentine tango, and its sound continues to fascinate and inspire to this day. The Uhlig core zone of the button/tone arrangement has remained unchanged to this day. This is why we are inviting you to Chemnitz - the cradle of the bandoneon - with our festival as part of our Capital of Culture project Moving Sounds - Concertina & Bandoneon.
The book with accompanying audio CD Von der Concertina zum Bandoneón / Chemnitz - die Wiege des Bandoneóns by Jürgen Karthe tells the story of the instrument and is available at www.auris-subtilis.de .
