German clock salesman Matthias Hohner formed his namesake company in 1857 and found a huge market in America, selling harmonicas to German immigrants fanning out across the South. The company remains the leading harmonica brand to this day.

Founded in Trossingen in the south west of Germay in 1857 by watchmaker, Matthias Hohner, the company can lay claim to being one of the oldest extant harmonica producers in the world (the honour of oldest actually goes to compatriots and rivals, Seydel, who were established ten years earlier).