Framus instruments were built in Erlangen, Bavaria from 1946 to 1975 when the company went bankrupt. They are now made in Markneukirchen, Saxony by Warwick, a company founded by Hans-Peter Wilfer, the son of the founder of Framus, Fred A. Wilfer.
The company has an interesting history. Fred A. Wilfer was a resident of Schönbach, east of Dresden. At the end of WW2, realizing that the area would very soon be in Soviet-controlled East Germany, Wilfer contacted the Allies with a plan to create a company with other workers, including many violin makers, from Schönbach. This plan was well received and arrangements were made for a plant in Erlangen and resettlement of workers. The business was a success and grew to producing over 2000 instruments per month. The increasing popularity of guitars, their subsequent electrification, caused the business to expand further with 300 employees by the late 1960s. But by this time, competition was increasing from Japanese and Korean firms and in 1975 Framus declared bankruptcy, closed its doors and disappeared.
In 1982, Hans-Peter Wilfer founded the Warwick company in Pretzfeld, Bavaria. Demand grew and Warwick moved to Markneukirchen, Saxony and at the same time revived the Framus brand.
