Upon the death of their father, Henry E. Steinway, in 1871, C.F. Theodore Steinway and his younger brother William Steinway took over the management of Steinway &amp; Sons. After the Steinway pianos had won gold medals at the world expositions in London, Paris (1867), and Philadelphia (1876), C.F. Theodore Steinway and William Steinway began planning a European factory, in order to save costs in customs and transportation expenses as well as to maintain connections with the highly sophisticated German piano-making industry. For shipping convenience, they decided upon a location in the major port city of Hamburg in Germany, where they opened a new Steinway &amp; Sons factory in 1880. The Hamburg plant was a separate business unit solely owned by C.F. Theodore Steinway and William Steinway, apart from the other partners of the New York-based Steinway &amp; Sons company.