Hopf (guitar maker)
Hopf is the name of a family of guitar makers . The name "Hopf" has been mentioned in instrument making since 1669 . Since then, the profession of plucked instrument maker has been passed on from father to son and is currently continued by Dieter Hopf (* 1936 in Zwota / Vogtland).
history
The proven origin of the family of instrument makers is the Klingenthal violin maker Caspar Hopf , named in 1669 as a member of the Graslitz violin making guild , born Caspar Hobe (1655–1716), the son of the mining engineer Christoph Hobe, who moved from Hamburg to the Vogtland in 1650. But it was Caspar Hopf's son of the same name (1650–1711) who coined the brand name “Hopf”. Since then, the craft has always been passed on from father to son. Only in the 19th century was this family tradition interrupted due to the early death of August Hermann Hopf (1859-1884). But Ernst Max Hopf (1882–1956) learned the trade of string maker and in 1906 founded the E. Max Hopf company in Zwota near Klingenthal. His son Willy Hopf (1906–1990) took over the company in 1932 and joined the company with an instrument workshop with his brother Wolfgang.
The Hopf family lived in the Klingenthal / Markneukirchen area in Saxony until 1948 . For political reasons, the family moved to Wehen in Hesse before the GDR was founded and the company was threatened with nationalization . In addition to strings and stringed instruments , the production of woodwind instruments was started in the newly founded company Willy Hopf & Co. there in Platter Straße .
In 1981 Willy Hopf's son, Dieter Hopf, who passed his master's examination in 1968, founded his own company under the name Dieter Hopf Guitar Atelier . In the following year Dieter Hopf and his wife Gertrud Hopf took over the string wholesaler CHD (Carl Hellweg Germany), which sells the John Hope string range , among other things . Willy Hopf & Co. , however, struggled with financial difficulties and had to declare bankruptcy in 1985 . The guitar making department of the company in Taunusstein was taken over by Dieter Hopf.
Dieter Hopf owns patents for a freely swinging ceiling system and the rosette bridge . In addition, he developed a legally protected membrane blanket. Well-known guitarists who played Dieter Hopf's instruments include Baden Powell , Alexandre Lagoya , Michael Tröster , Joana and Joe Sander from Johnny Cash Experience .
In 1991 the guitar model "La Portentosa", first presented in 1981, received the German Musical Instrument Prize .
literature
- Stefan Lieser: Hopf. A dynasty of instrument makers from Klingenthal. In: Guitar & Laute 8, 1986, 6, pp. 22-26.
Web links
- Homepage Hopfgitarre
- Test archive (PDF; 383 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b company history . Dieter Hopf. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ↑ Stefan Lieser (1986), p. 24
- ↑ Company history . Dieter Hopf. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ^ David H. Green: ASW Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary . In: Chrestologia . October 1998 ( aswltd.com ).
- ↑ Dieter Hopf has got the hang of it . German handicraft newspaper . November 21, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
- ↑ Instrument maker Dieter Hopf . In: Guitar & Bass . No. 1 , 2011, p. 83 , col. 3 ( hopfgitarren.de [PDF]).