Johann Georg Straub
Johann Georg Straub (born March 31, 1798 in Rötenbach ; † May 17, 1854 there ), also known as Geigenhans , was a German violin maker and violinist. He was the eighth generation of the Straub family of violin makers and one of their last representatives.
Life
Johann Georg Straub was born as the sixth of twelve children of violin maker Johann Straub and his wife Magdalena Schäfer. His ancestors include Simon Straub and Franz Straub. He was apprenticed to his father and soon showed great talent not only in violin making, but also in playing the violin. Around 1820, the young Johann Georg left the Black Forest and stayed in Zagreb in Croatia for about ten years , probably to do a journeyman's journey to gain experience in violin making elsewhere and to improve his violin playing. After his return he married the 24-year-old Magdalena Schwab.
His reputation as a violin maker soon spread widely. Unlike earlier representatives of the Alemannic School, he placed less emphasis on the appearance of his violins than on the sound. His violins have been described by various historians as raw to inconspicuous, but praised for their exceptionally good sound. The Rötenbach chronicle from 1987 even goes so far as to describe Johann Georg Straub as the most important violin maker of the Straub dynasty. What also set Straub apart from many of his predecessors was that he himself had great musical talent and extraordinary abilities on the violin, which earned him the name "Geigenhans". Later this led to the fact that he neglected the violin making more and more, became more and more an entertainer and finally a drinker. This caused musical and technical setbacks.
Johann Georg Straub died in 1854 at the age of only 56. It is believed that several of his children, who had learned the violin trade with him, also emigrated in order to gain experience elsewhere. This could explain the end of the Straubs as violin makers. While direct descendants of other branches of the Straub family of violin makers still live in the Black Forest, this has not been clearly clarified with Johann Georg Straub.
In 2010, in his birthplace Rötenbach, a 6.5 meter high wooden violin sculpture was reminded of the violin making tradition in Rötenbach in the 19th and 20th centuries and Johann Georg Straub.
literature
- Karel Jalovec: Encyclopedia of Violin Making , Volume 2, Artia, Praha 1965, p. 316
- Anita Auer (Ed.): Black Forest Geigenbau , Franciscan Museum Villingen-Schwenningen , Publications of the City Archives and the City Museums Villingen-Schwenningen Vol. 30, Villingen-Schwenningen 2004, ISBN 3-927987-87-5 , p. 32
Web links
- Kurt Hodapp: violin maker in the Black Forest (PDF; 19.5 MB). Waldshut-Tiengen 2004. pp. 79-86.
- Willibald von Lutgendorff: The violin and lute makers from the Middle Ages to the present
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kurt Hodapp: Violin Maker in the Upper Black Forest (PDF; 19.5 MB). Waldshut-Tiengen 2004. Here p. 80.
- ^ Liane Schilling: The largest violin in the world , Badische Zeitung , March 19, 2010
- ^ Alfred Thiele: Trossinger gives the violin the measure , Schwäbische Zeitung , September 2, 2010
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Straub, Johann Georg |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Fiddler |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German violin maker and violinist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 31, 1798 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rötenbach |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 17, 1854 |
| Place of death | Rötenbach |