The History of
the Peter Behrens Piano
In 1899 Peter Behrens was invited to design and build his own house on land he bought from Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. The Grand Duke, an important benefactor of the arts, supplied land to seven artists, Peter Behrens, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Patriz Huber, Rudolf Bosselt, Hans Christiansen, Paul Bürck and Ludwig Habich so that each one would be able to build a contemporary house. The Artist Colony of Darmstadt was born. The 'Behrens house' was the most expensive of the houses to be built.
Peter Behrens, a self-taught man, only chose to use the most expensive companies to help him bring his vision to life. There are two wonderful wall mosaics for the music room, which were produced by Villeroy & Boch. He gave the grand piano design to the Schiedmayer Pianofortefabrik in Stuttgart because he was impressed by the excellent quality of the work of their craftsmen on other art cased pianos he had seen them make. The piano has the serial number 32345 and was made in 1900 -1901. The musicroom was designed in the symbols of diamond-sun-eagle, inspired by "Thus spoke Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietzsche. The diamond on the body of the piano, the sun on the notedesk and the wing of an eagle on the top lid.