Löffler (foundry family)
In the 15th to 17th centuries, Löffler was a Tyrolean family of bell and box foundries.
The progenitor was Peter (* around 1468; † before 1530), called Laiminger, came from Heiligkreuz (district outside the city of Feldkirch ) and can be traced back to around 1486 in Hötting near Innsbruck. His son Wenzel was still active in Feldkirch from 1512 to 1521. In 1521 Wenzel Löffler had to run a foundry in Stockach on the orders of the emperor . In 1503 Peter took over the foundry at Gänsbühel in Hötting, which had recently been founded, where he cast bells and the first statue for the Innsbruck court church ( Ferdinand of Portugal ). However, his cannons, which became known far beyond the borders of Tyrol, were particularly popular. Since 1488 he was in the service of Archduke Sigmund for annual pay, in 1489 he was ennobled and called himself Löffler ever since. For Maximilian I he cast the large “Humbserin” gun. In 1502 he cast the Maria Maximiliana bell for the parish church in Schwaz . His sons were Gregor and Alexander († before 1543).
Gregor (* around 1490; † 1565) took over the foundry in 1522. Between 1524 and 1544 he was in the service of the Free Imperial City of Augsburg. He introduced a clear classification of the gun types. In 1539 he had builder Gregor Türing build a residence next to the foundry , which is now Büchsenhausen Castle. In 1548–50 he created the statue of King Clovis in the court church. 1556 sold him the pen Herrenchiemsee the Hofmark Stumm . The bell of St. Moritzen in Innsbruck bears the inscription "Gregorii Löffler und seine zwen Sün Helias and Hanns Christoff Gossen mich Anno 1557". In 1561 he and his sons created the bells for the parish church of St. Nikolaus in Tannheim in Tyrol. Helias died in 1610.
Hans Christof (approx. 1530–1595), who took over his father Gregor's workshop in 1565, worked a lot for Alexander Colin .
His son Christoph (1568–1623) ended the foundry activities of the Löffler family.
In 1605 Archduke Maximilian III bought the German master cast house and residence and leased them to the gun foundry Heinrich Reinhart .
literature
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Löffler, Tyrolean artist family . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 15th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1866, p. 387 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Ekkart Sauser : Löffler: Famous Tyrolean foundry family. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 21, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-110-3 , Sp. 848-849.