Bell foundry Eschmann

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Johannes bell in St. Johannes Luzern with the casting number 548
The old trademark of the Eschmann foundry

The E. Eschmann AG was a bell foundry in Rickenbach (TG).

history

Emil Eschmann was born on July 20, 1918. Early on he had the desire to practice the bell-casting trade. He learned the profession of caster after finishing school at Sulzer in Winterthur. In 1953 he bought Fritz Hamm from Salzburg (who worked in Staad SG before WWII ) his rib (the intellectual property of every bell maker). He changed the bell shape to a rib of its own.

Eschmann built his bell foundry in Rickenbach near Wil , directly on the railway line. The buildings are still preserved today in a modified form. Eschmann's first demonstrable bell casting was on November 23, 1955. The company was founded by Emil Eschmann on November 19, 1957. As a pronounced construction boom of churches was recorded at that time , which was triggered by the dissolution of the simultaneous relationships, the company flourished significantly on.

On May 31, 1970 Emil Eschmann left the company to join Georg Fischer AG in Schaffhausen. The original company was taken over by the Koninklijke Eijsbouts bell foundry from Asten . A few more bells were cast under the guidance of the art caster Peter Zollinger. In 1973 the bell foundry was liquidated.

Eschmann died on May 29, 1996 in Schaffhausen . His life and company motto is also on his tombstone: "Emil Eschmann poured me, in God's name I flowed".

Importance and scope of work

Eschmann further developed the rib from Fritz Hamm, which he bought in 1953, over the years. This made the sound structure of his bells more regular and the bells got a timbre typical of the company . Already in the early history of the company, he had ball-shaped clappers forged, which in a modified form have become the standard today. At first he used old models from the Oberascher bell foundry to decorate his bells , later he was able to win over well-known artists such as Fritz Linder (1914–2011) from Lungern or Alfred Schönenberger (1910–1969) from Wil for the design.

Eschmann bell in the roof turret of St. Mauritius (Regensdorf) with yoke fittings that are not typical for the company.

A total of around 600 church bells were cast in Rickenbach for almost exclusively Catholic churches. The company's bells have also been shipped to Japan , Vietnam , Madagascar , Colombia, and Tanzania .

In addition to new systems, Eschmann's offer also included the casting of cracked bells, the erection of bell stalls and the installation of chimes . When the bells were refurbished, the historic bells were mostly removed. The bells were mounted in disc-shaped yoke fittings typical of the company , so-called cast iron profile yokes such as in St. Johannes Luzern. The largest verifiable bell in the company's history is the large bell of St. Ulrich and Afra in Kreuzlingen with a weight of 6,285 kg.

There was also a small selection of Eschmann factory bells. Some are privately owned today.

Company bells (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Fabian Thürlimann, Hans Jürg Gnehm: The bell foundry Emil Eschmann in Rickenbach near Wil. In: Campanae Helveticae, No. 20, 2016, pp. 3–14.
  2. ^ Nachlass Emil Eschmann, Rickenbach TG : State Archives Thurgau , StATG ZA 1: 48 1.
  3. ↑ Eschmann company on doc.rero.ch , accessed on May 8, 2017.