Knake brothers

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Factory building in Münster, Grevener Strasse 165–167, around 1907
A Knake piano with the serial number 13559 from 1912-13
Frame detail with company name

Gebrüder Knake AG was a piano manufacturing company founded in Leblich in the Münsterland in 1806 , which was later relocated to Münster and existed there until 1929.

history

In 1808 Johann Bernhard Knake (1774–1856) built his first square piano in the Leblich peasantry, parish Heyden , and thus founded the company.

Bernhard Knake (approx. 1815–1902), a son from Johann Bernhard's marriage to Anna Elisabeth Sütte, continued his father's business. He went from building panel pianos to build wings and upright pianos on which he exhibited in Munster. He was married to Luise Brockmann. In 1851 he moved the workshop to Münster on the Rothenburg, close to the Prinzipalmarkt . This was followed by the construction of a larger factory in Bispinghof 15/16, where the company was located until 1917. The pianos and grand pianos were particularly characterized by a "solid construction, excellent vocal position and noble tone character" . With its numerous inventions patented in Germany, France, England, Austria-Hungary and Russia, the company acquired a prominent position in Europe, took part in world exhibitions, exported its pianos to many countries and promoted them among other things. a. with the tropical strength of its products. Johannes Brahms , who in 1876 had described a Knake piano as a " risky instrument that he wanted to avoid in the future ", then gave several concerts on a splendid "Knake'scher concert grand" which is said to have been "delighted", and others. a. on January 25, 1881 with Schumann's C major Fantasy and on January 18, 1882 with his 2nd piano concerto .

In 1896 Hermann Knake (1859–1908) took over management from his father. Under the name Gebrüder Knake AG , the company was converted into a stock corporation. Among other things, it developed and marketed a small, symmetrical grand piano with a length of only 145 cm, the housing of which was designed by Peter Behrens , who was then director of the Düsseldorf School of Applied Arts . The range has also been expanded to include self-playing electric pianos ( pianolas ). Hermann was married to Maria Lorscheid, with whom he had two sons. With his premature death on September 3, 1908, the company also lost its most important technical employee.

When the company celebrated its 100th anniversary in December 1908, the company was run in the fourth generation by Hermann's sons Bernhard , who studied chemistry, and Hermann junior , who was training to be a piano maker in his father's business. Both sons were victims of the First World War . In 1917, the year Bernhard died, the Bispinghof site was closed.

In 1922 the factory was finally sold. The name “Gebr. Knake ”was acquired by the merchant Oskar Schräder, who operated under the company in Bahnhofstr. 28 set up a piano magazine. In 1923, the former factory manager of the Knake AG brothers, Max Hanemann, founded the A.-G. piano factory with Walter Stollmann in Münster. “Hanemann & Stollmann”, which was based on the upper floors of Lotharinger Str. 23-25 ​​in Münster. In 1926 both businesses became a new company “Gebr. Knake Pianofortefabrik GmbH "merged. Oskar Schräder brought in a partial model and model 136 from the old company, and 12 workers were also taken over. The new company only produced 9 grand piano and 5 piano models based on their own designs. They are marked with the founding year 1808 and with pictures of the awards and advertising material of the old company, so that the impression that they are of well-tried quality. A preliminary injunction was issued with the result that the new company was not allowed to use images of the old company, among other things, because “there is no internal organic connection” . In 1930 it was entered in the commercial register that the company “Gebr. Knake Pianofortefabrik GmbH "was changed to" Klavierhandelsgesellschaft mbH ".

A restored Knake grand piano from 1873 is now in the Stapel house and is used there for chamber concerts and recitals, another from 1882 is in the Münster City Museum .

Awards

Literature, sources and web links

  • Illustrirte Zeitung : 100 years of German piano building art , Leipzig 1907, p. 416
  • Dieter Gocht: Dieter's piano pages , Königsbrück 2020, [1]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dieter Gocht, Königsbrück 2020
  2. ↑ Johannes Brahms, Correspondence, quoted from Walter Frisch, Kevin C. Karnes: Brahms und seine Welt, Princeton University Press, 2009 p. 92
  3. ^ Westfälischer Merkur , Münster, January 26, 1881
  4. ↑ Frisch 2009, p. O.
  5. ^ City of Münster, death certificate dated September 4, 1908