Nauheim lies 3 km northwest of the district seat of Groß-Gerau 16 km northwest of Darmstadt and 6 km southeast of Rüsselsheim. After the Second World War, many instrument makers from the Sudetenland such as W. Schreiber + Söhne found a new home in this community in the southern Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region, and helped give the place the epithet Musikgemeinde – "Music Community". It is also well known for its "Nauheimer Musiktage", held since 1970.
Neighbouring communities
Nauheim borders in the north on Königstädten, a constituent community of the town of Rüsselsheim, in the east on the town of Mörfelden-Walldorf, in the south on the town of Groß-Gerau and in the west on the community of Trebur.
History
Nauheim had its first documentary mention in 830-850 in the Lorsch codex.
Manufacture of Saxophones
, a firm manufacturing saxophones are based in Nauheim as of 2010. Additionally, another saxophone manufacturer called Dörfler & Jörka was located in Nauheim between 1949 to 1968. D&J had a close and complicated relationship with Keilwerth. D&J were originally employed as subcontractors for Keilwerth, making saxophone bodies and other component parts, then sending them back to the nearby Keilwerth factory for final assembly. Eventually, D&J started to manufacture their own complete saxophones before supplying them directly to German musical instrument retailers as well as the export market. Saxophones manufactured by Dörfler & Jörka for distribution direct to retailers featured their own key mechanisms which were very closely modelled on Keilwerth designs, though not completely identical. It is important to note that D&J saxophones are not Keilwerth "stencils", but rather are nearly identical copies of Keilwerths from the same era. As a result the tonal characteristics of Dörfler & Jörka saxophones are very similar to Keilwerth instruments and share the distinctive Keilwerth sound i.e. have the same "dark", "smoky", "punchy" and "woody" Keilwerth tone colours, compared to the "brighter" and more neutral sound of, say, Yamaha saxophones. Not surprisingly, it can be very difficult to distinguish the sound of D&J instruments from Keilwerth-manufactured saxophones dating from the same time period e.g. the Keilwerth 'New King' and 'Tone King' models. D&J manufactured alto and tenor saxophones exclusively. There is no evidence of soprano or baritone saxophones ever being produced by them. Unusually for a saxophone manufacturer, D&J never had the maker's name "Dörfler & Jörka" engraved/stamped on any of their instruments. Instead D&J instruments were engraved with numerous different labels including the following:-
Boucet
Carl Ludwig, Carl Schiller, Clinton, Convair, Condor
Due to issues of intellectual property infringement and brand recognition, the Keilwerth company became increasingly irritated by the fact that Dörfler & Jörka were successfully copying their saxophones. Eventually, during the late 1960s the Keilwerth company sued D&J and won their case. Dörfler & Jörka were subsequently absorbed into the Keilwerth company and production of all D&J saxophones ended by 1968.
