In the early postwar years from 1945 to 1947, Fred Wilfer was primarily occupied in finding new homes and gainful employment for the Schönbach violin makers. Somehow he found lodging for them as well as tools and raw materials at a time when there were really none to be had. He was forever in the offices of the administration in Munich fighting his way through the red tape, obtaining ration coupons, planning permission, arguing the case for this or for that. Meanwhile in 1946 he founded the FRAMUS works... the name being an acronym of FRAnconian MUSical instruments and designed to draw attention to the fact that the celebrated violin makers of Schönbach had made Franconia their new home.
The first workshops were established in a disused community work camp in Möhrendorf near Erlangen. The firm soon grew out of these premises, and Framus moved to a sometime brewery building in Baiersdorf. By dint of hard work, coupled with a talent for getting things done, Fred Wilfer managed to get the firm off the ground in those most trying of times. By 1954, even the Baiersdorf plant was not big enough and Fred Wilfer had to build a new factory. 1955 saw the official opening of the new works in Bubenreuth. By this time there were some 300 employees on the payroll, most of them resettled Schönbachers, but joined now by a fair number of workers from the local area. It was mainly guitars that Framus built and exported all over the world, but the firm also made zithers, basses and banjos. By this time the Framus name enjoyed world-wide recognition.
In 1966, a second factory was established in Pretzfeld in the area known as Fränkische Schweiz, as even the Bubenreuth plant was now too small. 100 people were employed in this facility. In 1971 Framus celebrated its 25th Anniversary. Fred Wilfer´s work and commitment to the music industry were honored by statesmen such as Konrad Adenauer, Ludwig Erhard and Theodor Heuss, to name but a few. The next year, the Municipality of Bubenreuth awarded Fred Wilfer an Honorary Citizen Medal for his services to Bubenreuth and in recognition of his role in the resettlement of the violin makers.
In the Seventies, price dumping by companies from the Far East began seriously undercutting the established brands and the market became brutally competitive. The effect was to force a number of firms into bankruptcy, among them Framus in 1975.
For Fred Wilfer this must have been a bitter experience. He had the consolation, however, of living to see his youngest son, Hans-Peter, make a new start in the business, establishing the firm Warwick in 1982 and ultimately reviving and bringing new honor to the name Framus.
