Lute and violin making in Füssen

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Statue of Caspar Tieffenbrucker in Füssen

The city ​​of Füssen is considered the cradle of lute and violin making in Europe .

The fact that the small town of Füssen, located on the northern edge of the Alps , was once an important center of musical instrument making is the result of a number of different factors. The main reason is certainly the close availability of the raw material. As tone woods only the wood of the mountain forests are in fact available. The spruce , the maple and, for lute making, the yew in particular , whose populations were particularly numerous in the forests of North Tyrol and the Ammer Mountains. The traffic situation in Füssen on the former Roman road Via Claudia Augusta , which was still important in the Middle Ages and connected the centers of Augsburg and Venice , as well as the river Lech , which opened the trade routes to Vienna and Budapest , contributed significantly to the expansion of this profession. The fact that the German king and later Emperor Maximilian I stayed in Füssen more than 30 times around 1500 is a sign of the city's heyday and importance at that time. And the cultural environment with the Benedictine monastery of Sankt Mang and the prince-bishop's residence in the High Castle created conditions such as orders for the musical instrument makers.

Since the long winters and the relatively harsh climate did not allow large agricultural yields, people in such areas looked for secondary income mostly in specialized handicrafts to secure their livelihood. Lute and violin making proved to be a viable basis of existence for many people in the Füssener Land for centuries.

history

Beginning

It was not until the late Middle Ages, when society became increasingly differentiated, that a market for musical instruments emerged. Only now could a specialized profession of lute maker develop. The clearest trace of the Füssen lute construction is finally preserved in the oldest interest book of the St. Mang monastery: In 1436 a lute maker had to pay a lease for a garden to the St. Mang monastery.

The oldest lute maker guild in Europe

In 1562 the Füssen lute makers joined together to form the first lute maker guild in Europe. At times, up to 20 master lute makers worked in Füssen, which at that time had around 2000 inhabitants. Due to the compulsory guild and the strict conditions that regulated the practice of this craft, the number of local masters was to be limited to a level that ensured a livelihood and food for everyone. The founding of the guild means that the high point in this branch of trade has already been exceeded and forced many talented journeymen to emigrate.

Labor migration: Füssener lute maker in Europe

The history of Füssen lute and violin making is also a history of labor migration . Hundreds of Füssen lute and violin makers emigrated to establish workshops in the European cultural metropolises, at royal courts and in large trading cities and to practice their craft successfully. For example, they found a large market in Venice with its 14 opera houses. In the 16th and 17th centuries around two thirds of all lute makers in Venice and Padua were of Füssen origin. Lute and violin making was also dominated by the Allgäu in Rome and Naples . But the emigrated masters often kept in touch with their homeland. Some of them continued to obtain their wood from the Füssen region and journeymen or apprentices followed them from home.

The adaptations of proper names are an indication of successful integration in the new home: Matthäus and Georg Seelos became Matteo and Giorgio Sellas, Magnus Lang called himself Magno Longo, Michielle Harton is easy to recognize as Michael Hartung and the name, which is difficult to pronounce, became Tieffenbrucker accordingly corrupted: “Duiffoprugcar”, “Dubrocard”, “Dieffobruchar”.

Violin making

The Thirty Years War (1618–1648) marked a deep turning point from which this craft recovered only slowly. In the Baroque period , however, the demand for string instruments in the capitals and royal cities of Europe increased enormously. This led to a second wave of immigration from Füssen violin makers.

Among the emigrants are the names of masters who are so famous today as Franz Geissenhof and Johann Martin Stoss in Vienna , Thomas Edlinger , Johann Ulrich Eberle and Johann Georg Hellmer in Prague , David Teckler in Rome , Johann Georg Bayrhof in Naples , Franz Placidus Fendt in Paris or his nephew Simon Fendt in London . Violin making in the imperial city of Vienna was almost dominated by Füssen. Sixty violin makers from the Ostallgäu can be found in Vienna. The most famous of them was certainly Franz Geissenhof , the "Stradivarius of Vienna".

Also Matthias Klotz (1653-1743), the founder of violin making in Mittenwald , was educated in feet.

Decline

Around 1800 the remaining five violin makers from Füssen were suffering from the subsistence level. The poor economic situation was also caused by the Napoleonic wars . In addition, there was the persistence of the traditional and the low willingness to innovate. Unlike in Mittenwald, the people of Füssen did not introduce a division of labor, organized according to the publishing house, which could supply the market with inexpensive instruments and a large quantity. On May 19, 1835, the violin maker Joseph Alois Stoss from Füssen reported: "Since his violin-making trade was entirely without any merit, he now formally renounced it and put it down." With his death in 1866, the great tradition of Füssen lute and violin making died out for over 100 years.

New beginning

Pierre Chaubert, a master violin maker from Lake Geneva, founded a violin making workshop in Füssen in 1982. Together with the plucked instrument maker Urs Langenbacher, he now runs a double workshop for violin and guitar making in the old town. Some journeymen from the Chaubert workshop have already qualified as masters and are now running their own businesses. So Achim Hofer, who set up his workshop in a house on the bread market in Füssen. You are now continuing this old tradition 150 years after the Füssen musical instrument making business came to an end.

Small selection of masters from Füssen

(Name - life data - place of work)

  • Johann Paul Alletsee, 1684–1733, Munich
  • Hans Angerer , around 1620–1650, Genoa, Turin
  • Matthäus Buchenberg, around 1568–1628, Rome
  • Johann Ulrich Eberle, 1699–1768, Prague
  • Bernhard Simon Fendt, 1769 to around 1826, Paris, London
  • Franz Placidus Fendt, 1733–1796, Paris
  • Martin Fichtl , born November 4, 1649 in Füssen, † February 23, 1707 in Vienna; Son of Jakob Fichtl, presinger in Füssen. Father of the instrument maker (violin, double bass) Martin Mathias Fichtl in Vienna.
  • Johann Fichtold, * around 1582, † June 2, 1670 in Füssen; Spelling of the name: Fichtold / Vichtold
  • Johann Anton Gedler , around 1725 to 1790, Füssen
  • Gedler (violin maker), 1692–1830, Füssen, Würzburg, Linz
  • Franz Geissenhof , 1753–1821, Vienna
  • Michael Hartung , before 1600 to around 1670, Padua
  • Johann Georg Hellmer, around 1700–1770, Prague
  • Rudolf Höß, around 1640–1728, Rome, Augsburg, Munich
  • Martin Kaiser, around 1645 to before 1710, Venice, Düsseldorf
  • Jakob Langenwalder, before 1600–1633, Rome, Venice, Füssen
  • Laux painter , gen. 1518–1552, Bologna
  • Raphael Möst, around 1590–1645, Füssen
  • Simpert Niggel, 1710–1785, Füssen
  • Andreas Ott, before 1630–1667, Prague
  • Peter Railich, called 1639–1678, Venice, Padua
  • Georg Seelos , called 1618 to before 1652, Venice
  • Matthäus Seelos, gen. 1612–1652, Venice
  • Magnus Steger, called 1615–1621, Venice
  • Stoss (violin maker) , Füssen, Vienna, Prague
  • Johann Martin Stoss , 1778–1838, Vienna
  • David Teckler, 1666–1747, Rome
  • Johann Georg Thir, around 1710–1781, Vienna
  • Caspar Tieffenbrucker , 1514–1571, Füssen, Lyon
  • Magnus Tieffenbrucker , around 1500–1560, Venice
  • Wendelin Tieffenbrucker , gen 1551–1611, Padua
  • Wolfgang Wolff , d. 1570, Füssen

Musical instrument making in Füssen today

  • Permanent exhibition in the museum of the city of Füssen.
  • Lute maker fountain by Josef Michael Neustifter, 1990.
  • Annual string instrument festival vielsaitig festival-vielsaitig.fuessen.de :
The festival idea is to combine violin making and violin playing. The aim of the festival is also to get chamber music out of the “ivory tower”, to bring it closer to people on the streets and squares of the city and to develop new worlds of sound in nature.

literature

  • Josef Focht, Klaus Martius, Thomas Riedmiller: Füssen lute and violin making throughout Europe . Leipzig 2017, ISBN 978-3-87350-054-9 .
  • Francesco Liguori: L'Arte del Liuto. Le Botteghe dei Tieffenbrucker Prestigiosi Costruttori di Liuti a Padova tra il Cinquecento e il Seicento . Veneto 2010, ISBN 88-6336-087-1 .
  • Luigi Sisto: I liutai tedeschi a Napoli tra Cinque e Seiento. Istituto Italiano per la Storia della Musica . Roma 2010, ISBN 978-88-95349-08-4 .
  • Catalog: Lute Violins Organs . Museum of the City of Füssen, 1999.
  • Old violins and bows: selected masterpieces from the German cultural area . Ed .: International Association of Master Violin Makers and Bow Makers. Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-00-001441-1 .
  • Adolf Layer : The Allgäu lute and violin makers . Augsburg 1978.
  • Richard Bletschacher : The lute and violin makers in the Füssen region . Hofheim am Taunus 1978; 2nd edition 1991, ISBN 3-87350-004-3 .