Made In Germany

MADE IN GERMANY

Some of the instruments that Eastman Strings distributes are made in Germany including our Albert Nebel, Rudoulf Doetsch, Wilhelm Klier, Frederich Wyss, and Rainer Leonhardt models.

Though not as well-known as the history of Italian violin making, the story of German luthiery is a fascinating mix of social, political, economic, and artistic history. Indeed, while the most valuable instruments from the 17th and 18th centuries are all thought of today as Italian, many of the most respected “Italian” makers, such as Steiner, Goffriller, and Tecchler were actually German! In fact, it is generally accepted that German immigrants founded lute and violin making traditions in many Italian cities, as far back as the 1400’s!

The German art of violin making began in the small town of Füssen. The earliest violinmakers there, as elsewhere, were also lute and gamba makers who experimented with many forms and types of bowed and plucked stringed instruments. (It is the word “lute” that provides the root for the term “luthier,” commonly used to refer to violin makers today.) Unlike today’s luthiers, most of whom specialize either in bowed instruments or plucked instruments (often further specializing in making just one or two models of one type of instrument), German luthiers of the Middle Ages and Renaissance made any and all needed wooden stringed instruments. Early German luthiers created a vast and fantastic array of lutes, gambas, violins, barytons, violas d’amore, and more. They were also prone to experimenting, often creating instruments for particular players of a sort for which today we don’t even have names! This spirit of experimenting is partly responsible for the fact that, though they don’t conform entirely to the now-accepted Cremonese standard of size and shape, old German instruments often exhibit ingenious and unusual design and methodology.

A view of the town of Füssen in 1546. Though not as well-known as violinmaking centers such as Cremona and Mittenwald, Füssen may be in some ways more important to the history of the craft. It is considered by many to have been not only among the earliest instrument-making centers, but also the cradle of European violin making, as luthiers from Füssen spread throughout Europe in the 17th century, establishing their craft in their adopted homelands.
Reprinted by permission of the Germanisches National Museum, Nürnberg

Starting in 1618, much of Europe became embroiled in a prolonged and bloody conflict known as the Thirty Year’s War. Because of national and religious animosities, many, Europeans became refugees during this time, and among them were the luthiers of Füssen. These makers and their families were spread far and wide by the conflict, and while the art of luthiery died out almost entirely in Füssen, it sprang up in the many towns where they eventually settled. Scholars now believe that the violin making industry in nearly every important center in Europe was either founded or invigorated by 17th century emigrants from Füssen. Many of the “schools” of violin making that emerged in these places in the 17th century are still active today, and trace their history in an unbroken line to these origins.

The German arts of violin and bow making today are the heirs of this background. They are also unique in the extent to which they have preserved certain social and business practices. All artisans and craftspeople of Europe in the Middle Ages formed into guilds. These guilds were responsible for training new workers, setting quality standards, establishing prices and trade rules, determining production levels, and mediating disputes. In most European countries, the guild system died away with the coming of the Industrial Revolution, but in Germany it still exists, and has strong control of the German arts of violin and bow making. Today it is illegal in Germany, as it was 400 years ago, to claim to be a violin or bow maker if one is not a member of the guild. In the few other countries with guild systems today, membership is voluntary.

The first page of a document from the year 1677, establishing the rules of the violinmaker's guild in the Saxon (German) town of Markneukirchen. The guilds oversaw the training of violinmakers and the regulation of their trade —and they still do so to this day. There is now a single violinmakers' guild for all of Germany.
Reprinted Vogtländischer Geigenbau, Vol. I, by Bernhard Zoebisch

Becoming a master violin or bow maker in Germany is accomplished in three steps. First, a young man or woman enrolls as an apprentice. As in former centuries, one of the ways to do this is to enter the studio of an established master. Apprentices in this situation begin learning by taking on simple workshop tasks, such as cleaning, tool maintenance, simple carving, and so on, gradually being given more responsibilities. Another way to serve an apprenticeship today is to enroll in one of the violin making schools, such as those of Mittenwald and Klingenthal. After graduating from apprenticeship, a violin or bowmaker-in-training becomes a “journeyman.” This term originated because in former times, the post-apprenticeship period was one of travel to various towns and cities to work and gain experience. Today journeymen and journeywomen can go to an advanced school, such as that in Markneukirchen, or can work in the shop of an established master. After at least two years, a journeyman may, if deemed ready by his or her master, apply for a master’s examination. This entails very rigorous tests of skill and knowledge by a board of selected masters, and culminates in the presentation of a completed instrument or bow. If the candidate passes all the tests and the examining board approves of the submitted work, the applicant is declared a master. In fact, it is from the old guild examination pieces that we get the commonly-used term “masterpiece."

Picking up our history a bit after we left off, the late 1800’s saw a very changed society from that of the 1500’s, when violin making originated. Technology and commerce had been greatly influenced by the Industrial Revolution, and in Germany, as well as in parts of France and Czechoslovakia, some master violinmakers decided to adapt their craft to the new assembly line technique. They hired and trained talented wood carvers to do much of the time-consuming work of making instruments, and oversaw the production. This made it possible for a single master or family of masters to produce far more instruments than would have otherwise been possible, and at a lower cost. Markneukirchen was the primary place in Germany where this technique flourished, and many currently active violin and bow workshops there trace their origins to this time. Another technique used to increase output and decrease cost was the cottage industry method. This was the method of choice in the town of Klingenthal, where families of workers received wood and training from the central workshop, did their carving at home, and took their completed work back to the masters, who assembled and finished the instruments. This system prevailed virtually uninterrupted until the Second World War. After the war, as discussed on pages 1 - 2, those workshops that survived began to use machine-carved parts to make their instruments.

The violinmaking workshop of E. Reinhold Schmidt, shown sometime in the early 1900's. This workshop in Markneukirchen is typical of German workshops before World War II. Note the absence of power tools. These craftsmen worked under the supervision of a master violinmaker.
Photo reprinted by permission from: Vogtländischer Geigenbau, Vol. II, by Bernhard Zoebisch

Events of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s brought about a new era in the world of violins. Two very important events caused this: the re-unification of formerly divided Germany, and the opening of Eastern Europe and China to the West. Under Communism, much of the heritage of Western culture was locked away behind the Iron Curtain. While certain Eastern European instrument and bow makers managed to do business with the West, their products were generally sold through East Germany and labeled as German goods. Of course, these included genuine East German items, which were marketed by a State-owned consortium. German goods enjoyed then, as today, a reputation for quality and reliability, but they were relatively expensive, and there was no escaping the fact that the artistic quality of many of the items was limited by the degree of machine work employed.

The German state of Saxony (Sachsen) was under communist East German control for decades. Much of the artistic and economic culture of this historically very active region was thus suppressed, and was inaccessible to the West. Since the reunification of Germany in 1989, the violin and bow makers of this region have once again joined the international instrument and bow trade, which has enjoyed a revival in part due to their renewed participation. This scene of a small Saxon town is typical of the historic and beautiful region.

The fall of Communism in Eastern Europe caused several changes in the instrument trade. First, instruments from Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic, and former East Germany became available. Many of these sources relied on traditional hand-building techniques to make their instruments; nearly all of them, because of weak currencies and low labor costs, made instruments available in the West at relatively low prices. At nearly the same time, China, which had unfortunately earned a reputation for very low quality instrument making, opened more fully to the West, with the result that many eager individuals travelled to study violin making in Europe and America. In a very short time, Chinese luthiers and workshops, such as Eastman Strings’, were producing high quality hand-made instruments and bows at prices lower than those offered by the established German sources.

Innovative German makers realized they would need to adapt to remain competitive; other makers and workshops clung to their established methods, and have found themselves no longer able to compete. Those who have been successful have done so by re-introducing handwork to their products, renewing their interest in better varnishes, and lowering prices. Another adaptation, employed by Eastman Strings, is collaboration between German master luthiers and our American staff of acoustical experts and varnishers.

History will surely record that the two decades beginning in the late 1980’s were a watershed time in the story of music and luthiery. String players today have more high-quality choices in instruments and bows than ever before. German makers of the current generation are among the world’s best, and their instruments and bows command the respect of professional musicians. The proud history of their craft helps explain why.