When Otto Schlicht traveled to America from Germany, almost 100 years ago, he carried with him his know how of the concertina. Schlicht began building Chemnitzer concertinas around 1917 and was soon supplying concertinas to Patek's Music Store in Chicago, under the name Patek; the Vitak-Elsnic Music Company, with the Pearl Queen label and Kosatkas House of Music in Illinois with the name "Peerless."

Another German, Ernest Glass, also came to the United States at the same time and started manufacturing concertinas in the early 1920s. Along with his sons, Paul and Otto, he continued making concertinas, producing "Glass Brother's" instruments until 1 951. Their distinctive reed block pattern created a balanced button action which made the Glass concertinas one of the most popular instruments with polka musicians.

Chemnitzer "boxes" were manufactured by "The International Accordion Company," in Chicago, the name "International" from 1926 until 1930. Concertinas bearing the name "Schukert, "Sitak," and "Silverhorn" were all products from the company. When Intern ational Accordion Company went out of business in 1930, employee Walter Mojsiewicz continued building concertinas using the "Star" name until approximately 1960 when Walter Kudlobuski, Jr. purchased the Star Concertina Company, operating it until 1973. Sold to Pompillio Roscianni and his partners, owners of the Imperial Accordion Company, Star remained under their management until April of 1989. At that time, John Bernhardt and Ed Cogana purchased Star Concertina from Pompillio, and Bernhardt became the sole owner in 1994 when Bernhardt bought out Cogana. Star is the last full-time Chemnitzer concertina manufacturer in the United States