At the beginning of the 17th century, many Huguenots with craft expertise moved to the city of Hanau. Along with other crafts, this led to a concentrated settlement of goldsmiths in the small Hessian town. A long tradition of goldsmithing and jewellery making was established in Hanau, which continues to this day.

An important factor in Hanau’s reputation for jewellery making is the world-renowned Staatliche Zeichenakademie Hanau, which is a vocational and technical school for precious metal design professions and one of the oldest goldsmith schools in Europe. It was founded in 1772 as an academy of drawing. Similar to the school founded a few years earlier in Pforzheim, the goal was to increase the design quality of goldsmiths and silversmiths for jewellery, silverware and metalware.

Also to be discovered in Hanau is the German Goldsmiths’ House of the Society for Goldsmiths’ Art.