Conrad Mollenhauer (Company)

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Conrad Mollenhauer GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1822
Seat Fulda , Germany
management Berthold Mollenhauer, Stefan Kömpel
Number of employees 10-50
sales € 2.5 million (2012)
Branch Musical instrument making
Website www.mollenhauer.com

The Conrad Mollenhauer GmbH is a German manufacturer of recorders .

history

The company was founded in 1822 by Johann Andreas Mollenhauer (1798–1871). In order to learn his craft, Johann Andreas Mollenhauer hired himself out to important wood and brass instrument makers in the German Confederation and the Habsburg Monarchy . After a good seven years of wandering and more than four thousand kilometers, he returned to his home town of Fulda in the fall of 1822 , where he registered his trade as an instrument maker in the same year. Just one year later he was able to show his first flutes, clarinets and oboes at an exhibition in Kassel . The jury, chaired by the court conductor Louis Spohr , came to the following conclusion: "The work is equally excellent in all three instruments, both in wood, as well as in brass and silver ..." A few years later, the Elector of Hesse appointed the so praised craftsman to the court instrument maker. In his business books, which can be traced back to 1828, a total of 5559 instruments sold up to 1871, the year of his death, are recorded, namely 2422 flutes, 2839 clarinets, 216 bassoons, 37 oboes, 24 csakans and 17 flageolets (2 Double flageolets) and 4 basset horns. Various brass instruments are also noted in the books. His clientele reached far beyond the German borders to America . Johann Andreas could hardly have built these instruments by himself. In the first place three of his sons were involved, of which the two oldest later opened their own workshops - Valentin Mollenhauer as a brass instrument maker in Fulda and Gustav Mollenhauer as a wood and brass instrument maker in Kassel. This Kassel workshop is best known today for its double reed instruments and has been in the Schaub family for three generations.

In his third son, Thomas Mollenhauer (I) (1840–1914), the founder found a versatile successor to the Fulda workshop of J. Mollenhauer & Sons. After completing his training in his father's company, he also sought to expand his knowledge abroad. The economic boom in his business made it possible for Thomas to move from his small workshop in the suburbs to a much larger building in a central location in Fulda in 1892, where there was enough space for the workshop, musical instrument retailer and family.

These successes could also be continued by Thomas' sons Josef Nikolaus (1875-1964) and Conrad Mollenhauer (1876-1943). In the course of the National Socialist dictatorship, however, the company quickly lost its previously global importance.

As it were, in a return to the instruments of his forefathers, Thomas Mollenhauer (III) (1908–1953) took the initiative immediately after the end of the Second World War and began making recorders. He also continued building the flute of his father, who died during the war, in his father's workshop, which he continued under the name of Conrad Mollenhauer.

Thomas Mollenhauer died in 1953 at the age of 45. On the basis of his preliminary work, his wife Rosel Mollenhauer nee Plappert (1911–2002) together with the employees the development of the name Mollenhauer into a brand name.

The current owner is Bernhard Mollenhauer (born 1944), who joined the company in 1961, passed the master craftsman's examination in 1970 and was managing director until 1993. In 1984, with his significant collaboration, a master craftsman's examination committee for woodwind instrument makers was established at the Kassel Chamber of Crafts . The current managing directors of Conrad Mollenhauer GmbH are Berthold Mollenhauer and Stefan Kömpel. There are currently 35 employees in the company.

Model development and range

The Mollenhauer brand has been present in the recorder market since the 1930s. The recorders sold by Gustav Mollenhauer & Söhne, Kassel before the Second World War were made in the Jahn workshop in Zwota .

From 1946 to 1965, instruments from the company's own range in Fulda bore the brand name Th. Mollenhauer (abbreviation for Thomas Mollenhauer). In addition, from 1950 to 1968 the Conrad Mollenhauer company took over the exclusive production of the recorder range for the Bärenreiter publishing house in Kassel. Such instruments were marked with the rounded Bärenreiter logo.

Since 1965 the Conrad Mollenhauer company has been building recorders under its own name again. In 1978 the legal form changed to a GmbH . Up to 1999 Boehm flutes were also made in silver and gold. The small wooden flute Picco , which is intended as an entry-level instrument to the modern flute, has remained in the range to this day . The maintenance and development of various recorder models are at the center of efforts. In addition to a large range of school recorders, the historically oriented Kynseker and Denner series are based on well-known recorder makers of the Renaissance and Baroque periods . Again and again it is about instruments with helpful key combinations for relaxed gripping up to one-hand mechanisms for people with physical disabilities. The innovative new developments include several products:

  • the so-called dream flute built as a recorder quartet (developed by Adriana Breukink) - a wide-gauged series with large tone holes,
  • the powerful-sounding Helder recorders (designed by Maarten Helder), designed for solo use in a modern ensemble , as well as
  • the modern harmonic recorders (designed by Joachim Paetzold and Nik Tarasov) - with an extended range and greater dynamic possibilities.

Based on an appearance from the 19th century, the so-called Csakan is built by Bernhard Mollenhauer as an early romantic recorder type.

In addition to making instruments, Conrad Mollenhauer GmbH supports the recorder culture with other activities: an in-house seminar program on recorder making and playing, with guided tours through the "Recorder Experience", the "Sound World" and the recorder workshop in Fulda and as the publisher of the specialist magazine Windkanal - the forum for the recorder . In 2013, the company electrified the recorder with the Elody electro-acoustic alto recorder. This may liven up the recorder's image.

literature

  • Susanne Bohl: We'll teach you the tones of the flute - Conrad Mollenhauer GmbH, Fulda . In: Susanne Bohl and others (ed.): Fulda. 50 treasures and specialties . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2016, ISBN 978-3-7319-0425-0 , pp. 176-178.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Conrad Mollenhauer GmbH annual financial statements 2012, www.bundesanzeiger.de, accessed on May 23, 2014.
  2. ↑ Company profile on www.productpilot.com, accessed on May 23, 2014.
  3. ↑ If the customer goes whistling ( memento of the original from May 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Youth and Economy, December 20, 2013, accessed on May 23, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jugendundwirtschaft.de
  4. ↑ Ulrich Jeß: Concert in Rodenäs: Recorder - the special instrument | shz.de. Retrieved August 17, 2015 .
  5. ^ Westfälische Nachrichten: "Highway to Hell" on the flute. Retrieved August 17, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Recorder Museum. (No longer available online.) In: www.blockfloeten-museum.de. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015 ; accessed on August 17, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.blockfloeten-museum.de
  7. ↑ "Gewerbeausstellung Kassel 1823. Assessment by the jury" Facsimile of the manuscript by Louis Spohr, illustrated in: Otto Mollenhauer: Chronik der Firma J. Mollenhauer & Sons Fulda, private printing (Fulda 1993), p. 15b
  8. ^ Otto Mollenhauer: Chronicle of the company J. Mollenhauer & Sons Fulda, private printing (Fulda 1993), pp. 15-16
  9. ↑ When the customer goes whistling - youth and business. (No longer available online.) In: www.jugendundwirtschaft.de. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; accessed on August 17, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jugendundwirtschaft.de
  10. ^ Peter Thalheimer: The recorder in Germany 1920–1945, Hans Schneider (Tutzing 2010), p. 166
  11. ↑ Tim Kanning: Electric flute from Fulda Keith Richards on the recorder . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . March 12, 2014, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed August 17, 2015]).
  12. ↑ Play it loud! Retrieved August 17, 2015 .
  13. ↑ Thorsten Winter: Darmstadt start-up premiere with Ansing drum . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . April 28, 2015, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed August 17, 2015]).