Welcome! .. and how DO you smuggle a piano, anyway?

Welcome! This blog chronicles the ongoing story of "The Piano Project", which is a community-based restoration of a 1912 Bosendorfer 170 Strauss model piano. This piano was essentially smuggled out of Vienna in 1938 by my wife's family, who were Jewish. And they did so right under the nose of the Gestapo. How do you smuggle a piano? Oh, the stories this piano could tell. This piano has likely been in the Kraus family since 1915 or so, which is remarkable given that fine musical instruments such as Bosendorfers were often confiscated from Austrian Jewish families such as ours as they fled the Nazi Anschluss in 1938. Accordingly, it is my understanding that not only is it unusual for a Bosendorfer of this generation to have made it to the US with its original owners, but rarer still to be within the same family. The fact that the piano is a Bosendorfer small grand is interesting enough in itself - Bosendorfers are considered among the finest of pianos, and worthy of restoration. However, the deeper that I dug into the story of this instrument, I also came to realize that through the story of this piano also runs many threads of the complex history of the 20th century. Oh, the stories this piano could tell.

The piano in the New York apartment, prior to being moved to our shop in Massachusetts.

Rudi and Ella Kraus, my wife's grandparents, Trieste, circa 1910