About us

Mollenhauer - a developing community

Our actions are guided by our core mission statement, developed with the active and creative participation of our employees.
"Through our instruments and services around recorder manufacture, we wish to enhance people’s pleasure in their own musical expression. To achieve this, we work in active dialogue."
In order to achieve this objective in our daily work and to remain open to new ideas, we take the following items from this core mission statement.
Our customers are pupils, teachers, amateurs and professionals for all of whom we wish to facilitate  access to music and musical education with as wide a range of recorders as possible and enable their individual artistic development. An important link to our customers are the specialist dealers associated with us and who are located all over the world.

Meeting places, exchange and cooperation

We live the relationships with our customers and are available for them in many ways. We feel equally connected to amateur and professional players. From this and especially from our extensive collaboration with world-renowned recorder virtuosos and recorder teachers, we are constantly looking to improve the quality of our instruments and gain valuable new ideas.
Meeting places are the numerous exhibitions at music festivals and at music fairs which are held all over the world. In addition, we organise seminars on the recorder and its music with renowned external and in-house tutors. We promote active music-making with the recorder as a form of artistic expression and as an important cultural and social contribution to every day life, and support specific events and projects.
With "Windkanal", the only German-language specialist recorder magazine, together with our social media activities, our recorder museum and workshop tours as well as the acclaimed recorder clinic (also for instruments from other manufacturers), we offer all customers and interested parties a wide variety of subject content and added value.

Who are we?

We are proud of our roots in the Fulda area and our 200-year tradition of craftsmanship, as well as our musical and cultural work, our diligence, and our daily commitment to making music with recorders. We are masters of every stage of work from preparation of raw materials to the finished instrument. Through this Made in Fulda philosophy, we secure jobs in our region.

Our success is the result of a team effort, which is rewarded by a transparent, success-based profit-sharing scheme. Together we are much more than the sum of our parts. The pleasure of meaningful work for each individual and the commitment to the team are important parts of the Mollenhauer atmosphere that visitors can experience.

Working environment, lifestyle and cooperation

At all levels, we stand for fair, empathetic cooperation as well as appreciative, respectful interaction, the basis of which are our "Rules of Cooperation". These include social, transparent wage groups, a wide range of social benefits and regular participation opportunities for inclusive interaction.
The family-owned business provides fertile ground for these aspects.
We particularly value warm interpersonal encounters, whether with each other, with our customers, or with our dealers, suppliers and service providers.
We support traditional craftsmanship with sensible technology and appropriate application of digital methods in order to maintain our competitiveness, but without neglecting the emotional aspects which the recorder involves. We actively share knowledge, experience and skills in order to learn from and with each other and to maintain and improve the quality of our products.
We regard the coexistence of different characters and personalities as well as their diversity of opinions as enrichment and a valuable contribution to our common growth.

Recetptiveness to new things

The continuous development of recorders and our manufacturing and business processes form an additional supporting pillar for our future. We are passionately interested in the needs of our customers and also bring our own ideas into the business relationship.
We consider carefully which challenges and innovations to take on. Efficient implementation is a strength of our family business.

Sustainability

We are very mindful of the health of our employees and customers. Our focus is on European purchasing, long-standing and appreciative relationships with our suppliers and service providers, responsible selection of tonewoods, efficient use of energy and low consumption of resources in all areas, right up to involvement in reforestation projects, so that we may succeed in manufacturing products that are in harmony with nature and society.

Training and further education

We use our training and continuous education to fill positions internally and allow our colleagues to take on new responsibilities. We also offer internal recorder lessons, these give both newcomers and longstanding colleagues the opportunity to broaden their perspective on the recorder. These lessons are provided by employees qualified as teachers and we provide the instruments and the teaching room.
We also encourage our employees to participate in ensemble playing with a variety of instruments, using our rehearsal room and suitable sheet music.
Our involvement in the growing cooperation between recorder makers, players, teachers and enthusiasts contributes to growing intiatives which radiate through the entire community involved in their development.

By ’community‘ we understand not only that of the recorder scene but also all related economic, social, educational and cultural sectors. The energy of the Mollenhauer brand touches recorder enthusiasts all over the world.

As of May 2023