M. Welte & Sons

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M. Welte & Sons was a manufacturer of self-playing mechanical musical instruments ; the company was founded in 1832 by Michael Welte (1807–1880) in his birthplace Vöhrenbach in the Black Forest and in 1872 relocated to Freiburg im Breisgau. The company's facilities were completely destroyed in a bombing raid in 1944, and operations were ceased forever in 1952. M. Welte & Sons existed in the USA from 1866 to 1919 .

Michael Welte operated together with his brother Valentin (1799–1876) under the name Gebrüder Welte until about 1845 , then under Michael Welte , since 1865 as M. Welte & Sons and from 1912 to 1936 as M. Welte & Sons GmbH , then as OHG .

History and inventions

Orchestrion by Michael Welte , built 1845–1848

Welte first built flute clocks that got bigger and more perfect. Soon he had achieved a great reputation as his flute works were of the highest musical quality. He exported a large part of his production to Russia , but also to France , England and the USA . The clockworks were soon bought in and he concentrated on refining the musical works.

World Exhibition 1862: The Orchestrion by M. Welte , of Vöhrenbach , In the Zollverein Departement. The Illustrated London News , Sept. 20, 1862.

In 1845 he was commissioned to build an instrument for the wholesaler Heinrich Stratz from Odessa , who came from the Black Forest . This first orchestrion by Welte was supposed to reproduce all orchestral parts and contained around 1,100 pipes. After three years of work, it was presented to an astonished audience before delivery, for example in the garden hall of the Museum Society Karlsruhe on March 23 and 24, 1849 and in Frankfurt am Main , where the German National Assembly was meeting in the Paulskirche at that time , which inspected the instrument. In 1856 he began to manufacture an instrument for the later Grand Duke Friedrich von Baden , which took 33 months to build. The Grand Duke sent the instrument made for him to the World Exhibition in London in 1862 , the "London International Exhibition on Industry and Art", where it was continuously demonstrated. Welte won a medal with this orchestrion.

In 1865 Michael Welte's three sons joined the company. The eldest son Emil Welte (* 1841 in Vöhrenbach; † 1923 in Norwichtown, now Norwich , Connecticut ) went to New York in 1865/1866, where he founded the company M. Welte & Sons on 1236 Broadway as a branch. Berthold Welte (* 1843 in Vöhrenbach; † 1918 in Freiburg i. Br.) Took over the management of the company, his brother Michael Welte jr. (* 1846 in Vöhrenbach; † 1920 in Freiburg i. Br.) Worked as a technician. There was also a branch on Moscow's Nikitsky Boulevard.

Moving and piano roll

In 1872 the company moved from the remote Vöhrenbach to Freiburg im Breisgau in the newly developed industrial area near the main train station in the Stühlinger district . The development of the control of these instruments by piano rolls was groundbreaking, these were paper tapes that replaced the very sensitive pin rollers previously used for this purpose. Emil Welte had this process patented in 1883 . Welte had finally become the market leader. Soon the famous instruments from Welte were playing their musical arrangements on roller skating rinks and ice rinks in the USA as well as in European royal houses or in the Sultan's Palace of Sumatra.

Electropneumatic organ action

Welte was a pioneer of the electro-pneumatic organ action . This was a revolutionary-appearing control of the organ stops and pipes by electromagnets, which appeared around 1880. Welte's activities in this area are still underestimated. As early as 1887, Welte advertised on the poster for the Upper Rhine industrial exhibition in Freiburg with references for the electro-pneumatic devices supplied for church organs. The supplied companies include a. named: J. Merklin & Cie , Paris and Lyon; JW Walker & Sons in London; Charles Anneesens in Grammont in Belgium; H. Stahlhuth in Burtscheid ; Aquilino Amezua in Barcelona; Dinse brothers in Berlin; Heinrich Koulen in Strasbourg; Brothers Rieger in Jägerndorf; Voit & Son in Durlach; Carl Weigle in Stuttgart. The Welte Philharmonic organs built from 1911 all work according to this principle.

Welte-Mignon and Philharmonic Organ

In 1900, Edwin Welte (* 1876 in Freiburg; † 1958 in Freiburg), the son of Berthold Weltes , and his brother-in-law Karl Bockisch (* 1874 Sternberg (Moravia) ; † 1952 Freiburg) joined the company.

M. Welte & Sons factory building in Freiburg (around 1912)

This was already famous for its developments in the field of automatic music reproduction with program carriers when it patented the reproduction process for the reproduction piano it had developed in 1904 . In 1905 this came on the market under the name Mignon, a little later as the “ Welte Mignon reproduction piano ”. This instrument used paper tape as a sound carrier , the so-called " music or piano roll ", and was a joint development by Edwin Welte and Karl Bockisch.

This made it possible to reproduce a pianist's playing, including the touch dynamics, as true to the original as possible. This technical marvel was a sensation back then and still allows an authentic reproduction of these recordings with the few well-preserved instruments. From 1912 there was a similar system for organs, called the " Welte Philharmonic Organ ".

In 1912 a stock company was founded in the USA , " M. Welte & Sons., Inc. " in New York City , and a factory was built in Poughkeepsie , NY

The loss of the American branch in World War I hit the company hard. With the introduction of new technologies such as radio and electric record players around 1926, the business with the elaborate instruments almost came to a standstill; the entire industry collapsed worldwide. The attempt to regain economic success with the construction of cinema organs and radio organs came with the introduction of the sound film . Cinema organs that have already been ordered have been canceled. From this time u. a. the Welte radio organ in the large broadcasting hall of the NDR in Hamburg from 1930 as well as the cinema organs in the Filmmuseum Potsdam (1929) and in the Grassi Museum in Leipzig.

The inflation in Germany and the Great Depression did the rest. In 1932 the company was just able to save itself from bankruptcy ; Edwin Welte left the company. Subsequently, with a greatly reduced business volume and personnel under the direction of Karl Bockisch, it was limited to the construction of church and special organs . This year his son, Karl Bockisch jr. (1899–1945), joined the management.

The bronze carillon in the tower lantern of St. Johannis Church in Lößnitz , which was put into operation in 1939, is the only carillon in the world to be equipped with a role-playing machine. This comes from the company M. Welte & Sons.

The last innovative product to emerge from the Welte-Clan, which has been inventive for around 100 years, was the optical sound organ , an electronic organ controlled by photocells , a prototype of which was presented in a concert in the Berlin Philharmonic in 1936. This organ was the first electronic instrument to use sampled sounds to reproduce the notes.

Further production in cooperation with the Telefunken company was blocked by the National Socialist government because its developer Edwin Welte was married to a Jewish woman.

Welte memorial plaque on the residential building Lehener Strasse 11 in Freiburg i. Br.

The company complex itself was completely destroyed by bombs in 1944 . Thus, along with the recording devices, the recording process for the reproduction pianos , which the company kept secret, is lost. It was only in the last few years that it was able to be reconstructed to some extent using a recording device for the Welte Philharmonic organ that was found in the USA.

In 1949 business was resumed in a modest way. After the death of Karl Bockisch in 1952, operations were finally stopped after 120 years. Today a plaque on the residential building at Lehener Straße 11 still reminds of the former global company.

In the Augustinermuseum Freiburg is the estate of the company, as far as it survived the Second World War . Some of the organs are now in the German Museum of Music Automatons in Bruchsal , where, among other things, a Philharmonie IV can be seen and heard.

Honors

literature

  • As if by magic. From Seewen into the world. 100 years of the Welte Philharmonic Organ . Museum for Music Automatons, Seewen SO (Switzerland) 2011, ISBN 978-3-9523397-2-5 .
  • Bärbel Dalichow: The Welte cinema organ - The Welte cinema organ . Filmmuseum Potsdam, Potsdam 2009, ISBN 978-3-9812104-1-5
  • Gerhard Dangel, Hans-W. Schmitz: Welte Mignon Reproductions / Welte Mignon Reproductions. Complete catalog of recordings for the Welte-Mignon Reproducing Piano 1905–1932 / Complete Library Of Recordings For The Welte-Mignon Reproducing Piano 1905–1932 . Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-00-017110-X
  • Automatic musical instruments from Freiburg into the world - 100 years of Welte-Mignon : Augustinermuseum, exhibition from September 17, 2005 to January 8, 2006. With contributions from Durward Rowland Center, Gerhard Dangel,… [Ed .: Gerhard Dangel]. Augustinermuseum, Freiburg 2005.
  • Herbert Jüttemann: Orchestras from the Black Forest: Instruments, companies and production programs . PV Media, Ed. Bochinsky, Bergkirchen 2004, ISBN 3-932275-84-5 ( reference book series “Das Musikinstrument”, volume 88).
  • Peter Hagmann: The Welte Mignon piano, the Welte Philharmonie organ and the beginnings of music reproduction . Lang, Bern 1984. Full text University Library Freiburg im Breisgau 2002
  • Gerhard Dangel-Reese: History of the company M. Welte & Sons Freiburg i. B. and New York . Augustinermuseum, Freiburg 1991.

See also

Web links

Commons : M. Welte & Sons  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ JW Walker & Sons Ltd. in the English language Wikipedia
  2. ↑ Welte cinema organ in the Grassi Museum Leipzig
  3. ↑ City church of the mountain town of Lößnitz ( Memento from December 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 47 ° 59 ′ 59.4 "  N , 7 ° 50 ′ 28.7"  E