Kaspar Brunner

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Contemporary depiction of the Zytglogge's clock, 1534.
Clockwork from 1530

Kaspar Brunner († October 9, 1561 in Nuremberg ; resident in Bern ) was a Swiss blacksmith and clockmaker who made today's astronomical clock and the carillon of the Zytglogge , the clock tower in Bern, from 1527 to 1530 .

The first mention of Brunner comes from the year 1526, when he was appointed citizen judge. The Bern city council commissioned him in 1527 to make a new clockwork for a sum of 1000 guilders, as the old one was so worn out that it could no longer be repaired.

After successfully installing the new clockwork in 1530, Brunner rose socially. He was accepted into the Zunftgesellschaft zu Schmieden , the Berner Zunft der Schmiede, which gave him the right to hold public office. In 1537 he was elected gunsmith of the Bern arsenal and in 1541 married Anna von Graffenried, the daughter of a patrician . Also in 1541 he was called to Nuremberg, at that time the largest city of the Holy Roman Empire . There he was in charge of the municipal arsenal until his death in 1561. As far as is known, Brunner never made any other movement.

Brunner initially worked as a locksmith and blacksmith, later as an engineer , gunsmith and watchmaker. He is thus a typical representative of the late medieval locksmiths and blacksmiths who, as mostly autodidactic clockmakers, created the majority of medieval tower clocks in Europe at the beginning of the early modern period . It was not until the second half of the 16th century that watchmaking became an independent profession.

literature

  • Jakob Messerli: The Zytgloggenturm - public wheel clocks in Bern in the 15th century. bmv / Stämpfli, Bern 1999, ISBN 3-906721-28-0 .
  • Markus Marti: 600 years of Zytglogge Bern - A small chronicle of time measurement. Stämpfli, Bern 2005, ISBN 3-7272-1180-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ GH Baillie: Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World . Third Edition, NAG Press Ltd., London 1966
personal data
SURNAME Brunner, Kaspar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss blacksmith and watchmaker
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century or 16th century
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 1561
Place of death Nuremberg