Johann Gottfried Kaufmann

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A grandfather clock with musical mechanism created by Kaufmann around 1774 in the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon , Dresden
Clock from Kaufmann's workshop, around 1780;
Mathematical-Physical Salon, Dresden

Johann Gottfried Kaufmann (also: Johann Gottfried Kauffmann ; born April 12, 1752 in Siegmar near Chemnitz ; † April 10, 1818 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German musical instrument maker and inventor of mechanical musical works .

Life

One of the Chordaulodions released from 1811 ;
Exhibit in the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology

Johann Gottfried Kaufmann was the son of the Siegmarschen parish leaseholder Gottfried Kaufmann and Rosina, daughter of the hosiery Winkler in Limbach / Sa.

Kaufmann originally learned the trade of hosiery, but then from 1770 in Dresden the craft of watchmaker. He also learned to repair mechanical musical works, which he focused on in his own workshop from 1772. Soon he was building his own apparatus that could imitate the tones of various orchestral instruments. In 1787 he succeeded in combining a flute with a harp: After the then sovereign Elector Friedrich August III. Had bought Kaufmann's first “flute harp clock” in 1789, orders from other European royal courts soon began to arrive.

Kaufmann's son Friedrich Kaufmann , born in 1785, also initially trained as a watchmaker, but also pursued musical studies on the side. From around 1806 father and son worked together and also undertook several educational trips to deepen their knowledge of musical instrument production, especially to France and Switzerland.

In 1808 they both built the Belloneon , "a musical work with timpani and trumpets". Soon afterwards , Carl Maria von Weber composed a piece with orchestral accompaniment for her harmonichord , built in 1810 , a keyboard instrument also known as the “string piano” .

In the period between 1811 and 1815, the Kaufmanns brought out the Chordaulodion .

After Johann Gottfried Kaufmann's death, his son and Kaufmann's grandson Friedrich Theodor Kaufmann (1823–1872) continued the family business and jointly developed "numerous improved musical works including the Orchestrion (1851)". In Dresden, the family set up the “Acoustic Cabinet”, which for a long time served both as a collection and exhibition space for their creations and was a sight.

Other well-known works

Literature (selection)

Web links

Commons : Johann Gottfried Kaufmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Herbert Pönicke :  Kauf (f) mann, Johann Gottfried. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 351 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Albrecht, Andreas Döhler, Edith Zehm (eds.): Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Historical-critical edition. Volume V, 2: Commentary, Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2007, ISBN 978-3-476-00237-2 and ISBN 978-3-476-02198-4 , p. 575; limited preview in Google Book search
personal data
SURNAME Merchant, Johann Gottfried
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kauffmann, Johann Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musical instrument maker and inventor of mechanical musical works
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1752
PLACE OF BIRTH Siegmar near Chemnitz
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1818
Place of death Frankfurt am Main