BIOGRAPHY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   The F.X. Hüller company was founded in 1882 by Franz Xaver Hüller (1856 -1936) in Graslitz.
Graslitz belonged to the Hungarian and Austrian part of Bohemia. After the first world war Czechoslovakia was formed and Graslitz became Kraslice. In 1938 Kraslice was confiiscated by Hitler and integrated into the German Reich and called Graslitz again.
In 1945, after the lost war Graslitz was given back to Czechoslovakia and was called Kraslice ever since. Until 1945 Graslitz was a German-speaking community.
In 1910/1911 he had about 250 people working for him. He was joined during this period by Anton Riedl (1884-1935) who was married to Hüller’s daughter Susanne. By 1919 they were joined by Ernst Modl (1892-1972) who was married to Hüller’s other daughter Philippine.
A partnership was born and the company name changed to F.X. Hüller & Co. They made all kinds of brass instruments, such as trumpets, trombones and even a jazzophone.  A saxophone department was established by Max Keilwerth in 1923.
The company used three trademarks:  “Professional”, “Champion” and ''World''.
In 1939 they were forced to build aircraft parts and war equipment. In May 1945 F.X. Hüller & Co was confiscated and integrated into the Amati collective. Ethnic Germans were forced to leave the country.
In 1950 Ernst Modl, the only surviving partner, started again in West Germany under the name: F.X. Hüller & Co Blechblasinstrumente Neustadt/Aisch.
In 1954 the company moved to Diespeck where they stayed until Ernst Modl’s death in 1972.
His brass instruments were named “EMO” (after his initials) and came again in the models “World”, “Champion” and ''Professional''.
In 1945 saxophone production ended in Graslitz, which in the same year was no longer part of the “Musikwinkel”.
The old F.X. Hüller factory and villa are still there. Nowadays the villa is inhabited by the Obst family and the factory serves as a shelter for the homeless.

Tobi, a German collector was so kind to send me copies of a 1934 FXH cataloque, see the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th row, below.

I managed to get my hands on a lot of sixteen letters from Xaver Hüller addressed to C.A. Gaetz, who owned a music store in Columbus-Ohio.
These letters were send in 1912 and 1913. In one of them saxophones were offered and brass instruments, of all sorts, in another letter of this lot.
Unfortunately no brand or trademark was mentioned, neither for saxophones or brass.
Nevertheless these letters makes it obvious FXH was selling saxophones before he started his own saxophone department!


first row: pic 1 Franz Xaver Hüller / pic 2 Ernst Modl / pic 3 source ebay.de / pic 4 source Jazzophon.com, coll. G. Westerhof / pic 5 source 400 jahre Musikinstrumentenbau Graslitz katalog, coll. M. Rippert
second row: pic 1 F.X.Hüller ad with Jazzophon in Artist 48, 1930, nr 2305 / pic 2 FXH ad /  pic 3 Louis Armstrong was an endorser for EMO, one of his first trumpets was a FXH Champion / pic 4 Louis Armstrong, Ernst Modl and his daughter / pic 5 the old EMO factory / pic 1 & 2 source Jazzophone.com, pic 3 source Kwintet Goed Koper-Xs4all, pic 4 & 5 source nordbayeren.de
third row: pic 1 three contra bass saxophones, 2 x FXH and 1 x Toneking / pic 2 & 3 two 1924 bills, which shows they had a drum and string department too / pic 4 1912-1913 FXH letters / pic 5 factory and villa 2016
fourth row: pic 1 & 2 blank warranty card, came together with a 3rd period Champion alto SN 24808 / pic 3 & 4 alto horn source ebay.de
fifth to eight row: 1934 FXH cataloque source Mönnig Company ( V. Schindler )




   

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