Due to the for those times unusual stability of the materials used, and the high resilience of his instruments, Bechstein soon became a household name. From 1860 onward Bechstein expanded his business. Towards the end of the 1860’s he started exporting to England and Russia amongst other countries, driving up yearly production to approximately 500 instruments.
During the First World War, in 1916, Bechtsteins foreign branches were expropriated. The English government had ordered liquidation of all German affiliates. The same occurred in France. Carl’s brother Edwin, who had been bought out of the company after a fraternal conflict, saw a new opportunity in 1923, when the business was turned into a limited company. Edwin and his wife Helene bought back into the company. Helene’s support of the by then only locally known Adolf Hitler, and her undisguised antisemitism evidently did not help business.
Despite all of this, with the company in dire straits, Bechstein provided a guilded Bechstein grand piano to the 1929 World Expo in Barcelona.
At the end of the Second World War Bechstein was heavily affected by bombing. It took until 1958 for annual production numbers to get back up to approximately 1000 instruments.