A century-old Ibach baby grand carries a family’s history from Nazi Germany to a hopeful future in America
It rests on its side in a Philadelphia workshop, cracked, weathered, and silent, yet carrying a story that refuses to fade. Crafted more than a century ago by Germany’s Ibach Piano Company, the baby grand traveled thousands of miles in 1936, escaping Nazi Germany with a Jewish family bound for the United States. While much of their world was lost, the piano endured
The instrument once belonged to classically trained pianist Heidi Brauer, who could not bear to leave it behind as her family fled persecution. With the help of her brother, renowned anti-Nazi lawyer Hans J. Frank, passage was arranged not only for people, but also for the piano that meant everything to her. Settling near Philadelphia, Heidi made the piano the heart of her home, instilling a love of music that lasted for generations.
Over decades, it moved with the family from Pennsylvania to South Carolina and Florida, and back again, becoming more artifact than instrument. Time took its toll: buzzy strings, a cracked soundboard, and a finish worn by history. Yet its cast-iron plate, hand-carved with golden floral designs, still glows inside, hinting at the powerful sound it once produced.
Now, in the hands of restorer Tom Rudnitsky, it is being prepared for another chapter — not a full cosmetic rebirth, but a careful return to playability that preserves its scars. The family wants its past to remain visible, a reminder of what it survived.
“You don’t see pianos like this – not this sort of monumental, world-shaking trauma embedded in it.”
“When it came here, it was, like, magnificent.”
“She played complicated pieces. To see her sit there and be able to do what she did was pretty extraordinary.”
“This is sort of like the equivalent of a foldable screen on a phone or something. Pianos in the 1880s to 1920s occupied the same cultural and social space that, like a Tesla does today.”
“I loved telling the story to anybody that would come in, how it came from Germany before the war and how it survived.”
“They were fortunate that it didn’t get scratched,” Sidney said, his voice tinged with reverence. “It never did.”
“The piano was really a very big deal,” said Eric Brauer, Sidney’s son. “It was the centerpiece of their home. To sit there and watch her play was pretty impressive.”
“When you’re raising a family, there’s always something else to spend $10,000 or $20,000 on,” said Tami.
“For 30 years, it kind of sat there,” Tami said. “Now it’s getting a new life.”
“You could just tell that this had been on their chest for years,” he said of the Brauers. “And there’s all this family history contained in it.”
Soon, when the restoration is complete, the piano will make another pilgrimage — this time to a home near Washington, D.C., where a new generation will learn to play on the same keys that once echoed through prewar Germany. It will not just make music again; it will carry memory forward.
It feels like more than a restoration — it feels like an act of remembrance, proving that even in silence, history can wait patiently for its next song.
Source:
- https://youtu.be/rqCtMhcS9PY?si=Vr4fFUDtROveHfrj
- https://www.npr.org/2021/02/14/967807203/a-rare-piano-that-escaped-the-holocaust-gets-restored-to-glory
- https://billypenn.com/2021/01/31/ibach-piano-holocaust-germany-jewish-history-philadelphia-bok-philatuner-rudnitsky/
- https://aistudio.google.com/
- https://chatgpt.com/
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