VEB Klingenthaler Harmonikawerke

VEB Klingenthaler Harmonikawerke (KHW) was a state-owned company based in Klingenthal, Saxony, and was the main producer of accordions, harmonicas, and electronic instruments in East Germany.

History

VEB Klingenthaler Harmonikawerke was established on 1 January 1949 through the consolidation of several private enterprises (F. A. Rauner, for example). 125,578 accordions were produced there in 1961 alone, which were exported to more than 40 countries. In 1964 VEB Vermona was incorporated into Klingenthaler Harmonikawerke. In 1972 a further 17 companies with state holdings were converted into state-owned companies and incorporated into VEB Klingenthaler Harmonikawerke (for example F. A. Böhm). The production and development of electronic instruments and effects pedals occurred in the factory at Schöneck, where the VERMONA logo first appeared on the ET-6 organ in 1972. In 1985 more than 3,000 people worked in the various sections.

In 1990 VEB Klingenthaler Harmonikawerke was broken up into many independent enterprises, as for example HDB electronic GmbH, which continues to produce the brand Vermona, and HARMONA Akkordeon GmbH, which makes Weltmeister accordions.

Helene Fischer

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Helene Fischer (born 5 August 1984) is a Russian born German singer and entertainer. Since her debut in 2005 she has won numerous awards, including eight Echo awards, four "Die Krone der Volksmusik" awards and the Bambi award. According to record certifications she has sold at least 9,115,000 albums. In June 2014, her multi platinum 2013 album "Farbenspiel" became the most legally downloaded album by a German artist of all time.

Personal life

Helene Fischer was born in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia (then the Soviet Union) as the second child to Peter and Maria Fischer. Her father worked as a physical education teacher and her mother as an engineer at a university. Her paternal grandparents were Volga Germans who had been deported to Siberia in 1941 by Joseph Stalin. In 1988, at the age of four, she emigrated with her parents and her six year older sister to Wöllstein, Rhineland-Palatine, West Germany.

After graduating from school, Helene Fischer attended the Frankfurt Stage & Musical School for three years, where she studied singing and acting. During this time, Helene performed on stage at the Staatstheater Darmstadt, as well as on the stage of the Volkstheater Frankfurt. Since May 2008 she has been dating Florian Silbereisen. In October 2011 Fischer was presented with her own wax figure in the Berlin Madame Tussauds museum.