G. Wolkenhauer
G. Wolkenhauer was a company for the production of pianos in Stettin . It existed from 1853 to 1941.
history
The company was founded in 1853 as a piano dealer and repair shop by Wilhelm Georg Gottfried Louis Wolkenhauer, a musician who was well known in Szczecin at the time. In 1857 his brother Eduard Adolf Richard , who was more commercially oriented, took over the business; the brothers came from a family of musicians and teachers from Hanover . Richard Wolkenhauer expanded the business considerably. In 1870 he became "Royal Prussian Court Supplier " and a little later "Court Supplier to Baden, Weimar, Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia ". In 1871 he acquired the Ferdinand Huet piano factory in Stettin and began producing instruments. 1871 is considered the year the piano factory was founded, although later anniversaries referred to the year the piano company was founded in 1853.
The piano shop and production were located on the ground floor of the Louisenstrasse building from 1874 to 1920. 13, today Łaziebna at the corner of Staromłyńska, which Wolkenhauer bought from the Velthusen wine merchant and is known as the Velthusen Palace . He also lived there privately. The photo studio of Eduard Kiewning and his successors Hermann Moellendorf and Christian Bachmann was on the first floor. Today (2020) the house, which is a listed building, houses the Feliks Nowowiejski Music School.
In 1873 G. Wolkenhauer enlarged the piano factory considerably, but was unable to expand his production capacities in Stettin as desired. The company therefore had some of its instruments manufactured by other companies in Berlin , Leipzig and Dresden . It continued to participate in other piano factories, such as that of Johann Kuhse in Dresden, or bought production facilities, such as Wilhelm Biese's court piano factory in Berlin, which he later sold back to its founder. In 1897 branches were set up in Döbeln in Saxony, in the same year in Freiberg in Saxony and four years later in Hanover. The Döbelner branch was closed again at the beginning of 1902, the branch in Hanover at the beginning of 1907. The branch in Freiberg became the property of the music dealer Karl Ewald. Other smaller branches still existed in various cities.
In the years 1879 and 1880 Wolkenhauer received Prussian medals and awards for achievements in the field of industry and craft, including 1881 in Königsberg (silver medal) and Kolberg (silver medal) and in 1883 in Landsberg an der Warthe (silver medal). According to the annual report of the Chamber of Commerce in Stettin for 1883, the company sold 1200 instruments, mainly to Pomerania , East and West Prussia , Schleswig-Holstein , but also exported to Sweden and Norway . The exact number of instruments produced in total is not known; Estimates range between 5,000 and 10,000. Wolkenhauer employed around 60 people in the construction of pianos in Stettin. Several inventions by G. Wolkenhauer to improve the soundboard of pianos have been patented .
Richard Wolkenhauer enjoyed a great reputation in Szczecin, also because of his charitable activities . He received honorary membership in various music and singing organizations and associations. After a long illness he died in Stettin on December 23, 1905. His brother Georg, the namesake of G. Wolkenhauer , had died in 1864.
After the death of Richard Wolkenhauer, the company was continued by his heirs: the widow Karoline, the daughter Lina and the grandson Kurt Wartenberg as well as a long-time employee as managing director. The company not only had its own branches and representative offices, the pianos were also sold by independent dealers at factory prices. A music teacher from Stolp offered Wolkenhauer pianos around 1876. A piano maker from Lauenburg i. Pom. advertised the instruments as “outstanding pianos from G. Wolkenhauer's famous court piano factory” and granted a ten-year guarantee .
On May 25, 1913, the company's 60th anniversary was celebrated. In 1921 it became the property of the merchant Fritz Bartholdt, who continued the business under the old name on Königsplatz ( Plac Żołnierza Polskiego ). In 1928 G. Wolkenhauer started selling Electrola equipment and records . In 1936 the company merged with the Bartholdt piano dealership to form the Bartholdt-Wolkenhauer company . With that “the two oldest Szczecin piano shops came together. The factory rooms of the piano factory have remained at Barnimstrasse 30 ”.
Because of the Second World War , the company had to cease production and close in 1941. Some Wolkenhauer instruments are privately owned and in some museums, including the National Museum Stettin (1870–80 with serial number 244) and the Museum of Industrial History in Opatówek near Kalisz . Another Wolkenhauer piano is in the Stettin house in Lübeck .
Web links
- Pianoforte-makers in Poland. In: lieveverbeeck.eu. Accessed April 25, 2020 (English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Dieter Gocht: Wolkenhauer, Georg. In: Dieter's piano pages. Retrieved April 25, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Zespół Szkół Muzycznych w Szczecinie. In: zsm2.szczecin.pl. Retrieved April 25, 2020 (Polish).
- ↑ Ryszard Hałabura: M & B - Ger. In: zaklady-fotograficzne-stettin.com. October 25, 2019, accessed April 25, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d e Krzysztof Rottermund: Szczecińska wytwórnia fortepianów Wolkenhauera. In: kultura.onet.pl. March 3, 2006, accessed April 25, 2020 (Polish).
- ^ Ars Polonica: G. Wolkenhauer, Stettin. In: arspolonica.ocross.net. February 22, 2013, accessed April 26, 2020 (Polish).
- ↑ National-Zeitung , April 14, 1864. (under "Deceased")
- ↑ Königlich Prussischer Staats-Anzeiger (1865). In: Bavarian State Library. Retrieved April 26, 2020 .
- ^ House of Stettin - Stettin collections. In: bkge.de. Retrieved April 25, 2020 .