Central Europe is exposed to the westerlies of the North Atlantic Drift, which means that Germany is in the path of winds that blow over the Atlantic ocean and bring relatively warm and humid air masses onto the continent. As a consequence, maritime climate influences prevail. This means that extremes in rainfall and temperatures are rare. It is more typically exposed to more moderate conditions. Precipitation is evenly distributed over the year, with an average rainfall of about 500 - 700 mm per year in the Northern Lowlands. In the Central Uplands they may get as much as 1000 - 1500 mm in the higher lying areas, and in the Alps they can reach more than 2000 mm. As a general observation it can be said that precipitation diminishes west to east, where the climate becomes gradually more continental.

   Mean temperatures in January are generally below zero in the eastern parts of the Northern Lowlands, whereas in the western parts they stay above. Due to higher altitudes in the south, Bavaria and the alpine region have the lowest mean temperatures during the winter, but even there they will not fall much below -5 degrees Celsius.  Extreme drops are seldom but may occur. The historical importance of the forests can be seen from the frequent use of the suffix -"wald" (means forest) in place-names, e.g. Schwarzwald (black forest), Bayerischer Wald (Bavarian forest), Th�ringer Wald (Thuringian forest) and many others. This 'even' temperature,  facilitates the slow growth of straight, close-grained, pines, and hence the location of the instrument-making industry.

      A surprising fact is that Germany, despite its high population density, still has 29% of its land mass covered by woods and forests. It is probably for these climatic and geographical reasons, that during the last century, the European country most famous for producing mandolins after Italy, was Germany. During the period of the existence of E. Germany, there was practically a factory-scale production of instruments around Markneukirchen in Saxony. Sadly, due to the principles of the regime, individual luthiers, some of whom were excellent, were prohibited from putting their names in their creations. Thus there are many German mandolins still in existence, and amongst them, some of excellent quality made by master luthiers.

Herwiga: Wilhelm Herwig of Markneukirchen 
According to German sources in 1890 Wilhelm Herwig founded a company, which consisted of the company Glaesel and Herwig Markneukirchen. The company was called HERWIGA. It was a pure publishing company. Herwig was a musician and merchant and used the instruments of home workers, a practice typical of Markneukirchen at the time. The trading company was taken over 1972 by MUSIMA.

The Company was relaunched in 1995.

Meinel and Herold: