Hermann Große

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Hermann Große (explanation of terms ) .

Carl Louis Hermann Große (born September 4, 1848 in Dresden , † after 1912) was a German bell founder and engineer.

Life

Große was a son of the Dresden bell founder Johann Gotthelf Große and his wife Maria Therese nee. Winter. In 1869, after the death of his father, he took over the management of the company . Piece, bell and metal foundry JG Grosse . In 1871 the foundry moved its headquarters to Kamenzer Straße 20. In 1872 he acquired the citizenship of the city of Dresden and became a master of the Dresden piece and bell foundry guild. From 1873 to 1878 he ran the foundry with his younger brother Johann Friedrich Gerhard .

In 1880 the engineer Robert Ebert took over the foundry, which had got into economic difficulties. Große remained as authorized signatory and technical manager until 1883 and then became technical manager of the Dresden art and ore foundry C. Albert Bierling .

In 1887, Grosse changed to the company E. v. Münstermann German phosphor bronze industry in Katowice . He was still active there around 1912.

The place and date of death are unknown, and the usual addendum is missing in the Dresden birth and marriage registers. It is possible that Große died in 1923, after the separation of the Upper Silesian industrial area , when the authorities' relationship between East Upper Silesia and Germany was disrupted.

Works

Under great management, the foundry supplied numerous bells, mainly for churches in central and northern Germany, but also for St. John's Church in Oslo , Canterbury in Australia, Ponce in Puerto Rico and the United States of America. In addition, Grosse manufactured bronze guns weighing 230 tons between 1876 and 1878 alone . In addition, technical system components such as pump pistons 6 meters in length and 3.5 tons in weight were created.

The first big big bell was the cantabona of Hildesheim Cathedral, cast in 1875 (fis ⁰ , 8415 kg, op. 795, melted down in 1942). The Domina (f sharp ⁰ , 7718 kg, op. 525) for Halberstadt Cathedral was also created in 1875 . In 1876 ​​he created two bells for the St. Nicholas Church in Hamburg , ( Concordia f ⁰ , 6373 kg, op.844 and a ⁰ , 3227 kg, op.845).

The main work is the nine-part bell of the Frankfurt Cathedral, cast on May 5, 1877 (op. 857–865). All bells have been preserved, including the Gloriosa , the second heaviest bronze bell in Germany at 11,950 kilograms. The cathedral bells form the core of the Frankfurt city bells .

In 1878, Große created four bells as op. 911–914 for the main church Sankt Petri in Hamburg, including the Maxima (it ⁰ , 10185 kg). Only the smallest bell d ′ has survived from this peal.

Even after Great from 1880 no longer owner was the foundry, he created some significant bells, including in 1880 as Op. 1020, the still existing Epiphany bell for the Cologne Cathedral (h ⁰ , 3800 kg) and the ringing of the Epiphany Church in Frankfurt (e ' , a ′, h ′, cis ″, op. 1041-1044, total weight 2760 kg). His last major work was the four-part bells cast in 1881 with a total weight of 11,000 kg for the German St. Gertrud Church in Stockholm (op. 1084-1087). Three of these bells in a flat ⁰ , es ′ and a a ′ have been preserved, the bell c ′ was cast by C. Albert Bierling in 1909 after a jump . In 1882 the list of bells from the Große Foundry ends with op. 1139, a small bell for Celago in Mexico.

The majority of its bells were cast in ribs of medium weight , some also in lighter ones . The Frankfurt cathedral bells are an exception. According to the contract dated June 28, 1876, Große had to take the gloriosa of the Erfurt cathedral as a model for the Frankfurt Gloriosa . The masterpiece by Gerhard van Wou , created in 1497, was considered the largest and most beautiful bell of the Middle Ages. Große studied the Erfurt Gloriosa in detail and decided to construct all cathedral bells uniformly in their heavy rib, because it "seems to offer him more security for the success of harmonic overtones than the newer German and French bell ribs, which differ significantly from them". According to the acceptance certificate issued by the Frankfurt building deputation on January 13, 1879, the ringing “the bell founder succeeded in the best possible way. The tone [of the gloriosa] is pure, the bell produces only harmonic secondary tones when it is isolated, the fullness, force and majesty of its pure sound leave nothing to be desired. The result of the examination of the other bells, which were individually examined for their sound, their fullness and their secondary tones, was also a very gratifying one. The ringing is ... in terms of richness, purity, harmonic sound effect and timbre probably one of the most powerful and beautiful of those currently in use ... The casting and the execution of the ornamental details and the inscriptions leave much to be desired, but it was decided If the musical examination fails, the takeover of the bells can be assessed. "

literature

• Konrad Bund: Hermann Große, the master of the Frankfurt cathedral bells from 1877 . In: Konrad Bund (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Glockenbuch (=  messages from the Frankfurt city archive . Volume 4 ). Waldemar Kramer Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1986, p. 336-354 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Konrad Bund: A Chronicle of the Frankfurt Cathedral Bell . In: Konrad Bund (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Glockenbuch (=  messages from the Frankfurt city archive . Volume 4 ). Waldemar Kramer Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1986, p. 272 .
2. ↑ Bund, Frankfurter Glockenbuch , p. 281