Designed in 1948 by Julius Zöller, chief engineer of Telefünken's development department in Germany, this type of violin sought the best sonority by dispensing with the high quality of the woods used. In order to achieve the best possible vibrations, the soundboard does not have the typical violin holes, and instead five openings are used in the sides of the sides on each side of the instrument.

The bridge rests at the exact centre of gravity of the system supported at 4 points and a sophisticated wood mechanism inside the bridge allows for a better sonority. It also features a 5th string that passes under the fingerboard and through the middle of the bridge and is tuned in C, which only vibrates by sympathy. The tuning pegs also feature a unique design with the strings wound on a thin metal shaft.

Julius Zoller had been a member of the Anthroposophical Society since 1916 and had heard many lectures by Rudolf Steiner himself in Dornach and Berlin. This design seems to have arisen from a dreamlike experience Julius had around 1943. Zöller began by trying to carbonise the woods of his own violin and test the differences in sonority between the two states of the instrument. Zoller reassembled the violin, played the first notes and compared them with the disc recording he had made of the previous sound of the instrument. The comparison was in favour of the ‘new’ violin.

Zoller then came to the conclusion that the melodious sound of a stringed instrument could not depend solely on old precious woods, special measurements or mysterious varnishes. Rather: ‘The whole violin, the whole violin, must be able to vibrate uninhibitedly’. He set aside all traditional theories of violin making and built an instrument based solely on the laws of vibration, made of maple and varnished with ordinary alcohol varnish.

He continued to develop his idea, until in 1948 he began making his model violin. It was given a new shape from the outside. The eight became a bottle. ‘A violin should have no corners and no reinforcements to interrupt the vibrations,’ says the violin designer. Zoller spent five years testing 60 different models until the first violin met his expectations. He had it played for the first time at the Leipzig fair. Within a few days, 200 pieces were sold, and order after order arrived at the Gartenstrasse in Karlsruhe, where Zoller had designed and calculated his instruments at his drawing board. There were also orders from Argentina and Brazil.

Julius Zoller rented a workshop and hired 13 employees. With them he made 50 to 60 violins a month. The first Zoller violins still cost 800 RM. After the currency reform, Zoller was able to reduce the price to 180 DM, and hoped to bring it down to 120 DM with favourable agreements. Initially, 700 violins were made in the company's own workshops with 12 workers. Later, production was transferred to Erlangen. The instrument was in great demand at trade fairs in Frankfurt and Leipzig.

Radio Stuttgart was also interested in Julius Zoller and his violin. The concertmaster, who played the instrument in front of the microphone, was at first very hesitant. Then he explained that Zoller had obtained two things: a master violin that could be mass-produced and a microphone violin that the radio had been waiting for years.

The Mittenwald violin makers asked their professional association to lend them some instruments for study and expert judgement. Mr. Zoller sent them to him. ‘In ten years‘ time only violins will be made according to my system,’ he says, ‘and by then I will have finished the first new cellos and double basses, cellos and double basses’.

His friend, the physician and sculptor Georg Sutter, wrote an appreciation of Julius Zoller's personality, which he characterised in the following words: ‘Despite all his successes and the recognition of the experts of the experts, he remained modest, unpretentious, cultivated tolerance and reverence. A true Faustian eagerness to recognise what holds the world together from within, and his way of life was shaped by the spirit of Rudolf Steiner’.