- Steinway & Sons American factory builds 2,236 pianos.
- Steinway & Sons’ net loss is $17,977: the company is at its lowest point since the Great Depression.
- Steinway & Sons is forced to borrow $600,000 from a bank, to cover business expenses.
- Steinway & Sons’ Hamburg plant builds 823 pianos, making the net profit of $21,727.
- Walter Günther, the assistant to the director of Hamburg factory, comes up with the initiative to create the “Steinway-Haus” – a music store that sells not only pianos, but other types of musical instruments as well, in addition to records and sheet music. “Steinway-Haus” immediately becomes profitable, but exchange restrictions prevent sending money from Germany to the United States. (Steinway & Sons management notes Walter Günther’s business acumen: four years later he will become the leader of all Steinway & Sons’ operations in Hamburg.)
- Vladimir Horowitz decides to not give any more public concerts. He will spend the next twelve years playing various Steinway & Sons grand pianos in his house, studying musical works that he rarely or never performed before.
- “People and Pianos”, Theodore E. Steinway’s book on Steinway & Sons’ history, is published in 15,000 copies, to commemorate the company’s 100th anniversary.
- More than 200 Steinway & Sons centennial concerts are performed all through the United States, which, in addition to serving as direct advertisement for the company’s product, also generates a lot of free publicity, in the form of articles in hundreds of newspapers and magazines, and numerous radio interviews. All this effort, however, will not lead to any significant increase in Steinway & Sons piano sales.
- The first six workers qualify for Steinway & Sons pension.