Upper Austrian bell and metal foundry

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The Upper Austrian bell and metal foundry , also known as the St. Florian bell foundry , was a bell foundry in St. Florian, Upper Austria . Austria's most famous bell, the Neue Pummerin , which was cast here, is associated with this company .

Companies

Towards the end of the First World War , during which numerous church bells were confiscated in so-called “bell actions” or “bell deliveries” and melted down for war purposes, high-ranking clergymen decided to found a bell foundry to meet the expected need for new bells after the end of the war cover.

The foundry was established on February 17, 1917. Among the shareholders who scored Diocese of Linz and numerous monasteries Admont , Altenburg , Göttweig , Lambach , Reichersberg Monastery , St. Lambrecht's Abbey , St. Florian , Schlägl , Schlierbach , Vorau and Wilhering .

The first director was the Upper Austrian Anton Gugg , who had operated his own workshop as a bell caster in Linz until 1914 (where in 1901 he cast the bell of the Linz Cathedral of the Conception , 7 bells on f 0 with a total weight of 17,770 kg). Only after the end of the First World War , on November 27, 1919, were the first five bells cast under his direction in the newly founded foundry in St. Florian, namely 3 bells for the Gurten parish church and one bell each for the Pöstlingberg church and one for Ranshofen .

On February 4, 1920, Johann Dettenrieder (born June 16, 1883 in Amendingen ) became the new director, who had worked in several Bavarian bell foundries before the war and was a casting master at the Kortler company in Munich from 1907 to 1914.

Up until the connection in 1938, a total of 1618 bells had been cast in St. Florian. During the Nazi era, the foundry was expropriated and became the property of the Reichsgau Oberdonau.

After the Second World War , bell casting was resumed, initially again under Dettenrieder's management. Around 1947 Karl Geiß (or Geisz) became director, who had been trained at the bell foundry school of the Heinrich Humpert bell foundry in Brilon . Dettenrieder remained a casting master. After Karl Geiß's death, director Eigelsberger took over the management of the foundry in 1953.

Since the demand for new bells continued to decline in Austria, bell casting was discontinued in 1973, but the metal goods factory continued to operate. On October 12, 1994, the company had to file for final bankruptcy.

The site of the former foundry has been used by the St. Florian Technology and Innovation Center since 1999 .

As of 2015, the Grassmayr bell foundry (Innsbruck) is the last production facility for large bells in Austria; the largest bell produced there was cast in 2016 for the new cathedral in Bucharest. With a weight of a little over 25 tons, it replaced the Austrian record holder, the Pummerin, which was cast in Sankt Florian in 1951.

Bell ribs

Initially, the bell rib of the Gugg foundry family was used, a baroque rib of the seventh type .

Since Pfundner already used the tonally better octave rib in Vienna , Dettenrieder also introduced such a rib shape in 1928. Most of the bells of this foundry were made in this so-called cord rib . The name of this rib is probably derived from the Kortler foundry, in which Dettenrieder had previously worked.

Karl Geiß (* August 21, 1905, † January 1, 1953) designed a new shape for the Pummerin 1950, the Brilon rib (named after the Brilon bell foundry school that Geiß had attended). As far as is known, this rib was only used for the bells of the Mariazell Basilica, apart from the pummerin .

Cast of the Pummerin

All Austrian federal states participated in the reconstruction of St. Stephen's Cathedral , which was badly damaged in the war . As a contribution from Upper Austria , Governor Dr. Heinrich Gleißner in 1950 to have a new Pummerin cast. Her predecessor fell out of the belfry during the fire in the cathedral on April 12, 1945 and shattered. The Upper Austrian bell foundry received the order.

A new, larger melting furnace with a capacity of 27,000 kg was specially built for the casting, and a new bell rib was designed. The first casting on October 26, 1950 in front of a large audience failed because glowing bell food flowed out. The new bell had to be cast a second time on September 5, 1951 - this time without an audience. This casting worked perfectly. The Pummerin was exhibited in front of the Linz Landhaus until April 25, 1952 , before it could be ceremoniously transferred to Vienna as a gift from the state of Upper Austria. The bell ring of the Pummerin commemorates this event . After her consecration, the Pummerin initially hung provisionally on a scaffolding next to the cathedral, and has been on the north tower since 1957.

Karl Geiß was killed in a car accident on New Year's Eve 1952. On the same night as the Pummerin rang in the new year for the first time, the clapper broke after the 10th bell, which still came from the old Pummerin .

Karl Geiß was honored by the City of Vienna in 1957 by naming Karl-Geiß-Gasse in Liesing after him.

Bell production

Among the 1618 bells that were cast in the interwar period, the following are particularly noteworthy:

  • Dreikönigskirche in Hittisau : 5-part chime on a 0 , cast in 1921. It was the largest chime cast in St. Florian between the wars, only the smallest bell has survived.
  • Parish church St. Stephan in Braunau am Inn : 5-part bell on c 1 , cast in 1925. It is the only bell from St. Florian from the interwar period that has been completely preserved.
  • Lambach Abbey : 5-part chime on c 1 , cast in 1928. It was the first big chime in cord rib. Only the big bell is preserved.

After 1945 around 2,500 bells were cast, including the following important works in chronological order:

See also

literature

  • Florian Oberchristl: Bell customer of the Diocese of Linz. Verlag R. Pirngruber, Linz 1941, 784 pages.
  • Jörg Wernisch: Bell customer of Austria. Journal-Verlag, Lienz 2006.

Web links

Commons : Upper Austrian bell and metal foundry  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Oberchristl 1941, p. 14f.
  2. ↑ a b Oberchristl 1941, p. 635.
  3. ↑ LH Dr. Josef Pühringer at the start of the project "Historical Places of Upper Austria". State correspondence dated November 2, 2008, accessed on January 31, 2010.
  4. ^ Roman Sandgruber: Robbery and Forced Labor. In: OÖ Nachrichten of July 11, 2009, accessed on January 31, 2010.
  5. ↑ The fight against aluminum smelting in 1995 ( Memento of the original from December 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 381 kB) In: Green St. Florian. Edition 4/2008. Accessed on January 31, 2010. No longer available on May 5, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / st.florian.gruene.at
  6. ↑ http://oe1.orf.at Gudrun Braunsperger: When the bells ring peace, vibration and mood of an archaic instrument (part 2). ORF Ö1 radio protocol, May 5, 2015, 9:45 am - 7 (14) days.
  7. ↑ Karl Geiß on geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at.
  8. ↑ The new pummer and the old clapper . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 3, 1953, p. 3 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized). Column 4.
  9. ↑ Karl-Geiß-Gasse on geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at.