Bubenreuth Germany
Dr. Susanne Schnitzer shares her memories growing up in the Kirschnek family. Grandfather Franz Krischnek, founder of Kirschnek String Instruments, was a businessman with worldwide connections (many of them to the United States) while his daughter Ilse Fischer managed the rest. She took the...
Thomas Hoyer is the product manager of string instruments and worldwide distribution for Paesold and Höfner. After receiving his master degree in violin making in 1998, he started in the Höfner master workshop. As a product specialist he later established production of violins in China and is now...
Ewald Hannabach can recall nearly every detail about the life of the luthiers in the famous music corner in the Egerland, which served as the center of production of stringed instruments for centuries. Ewald was able to witness firsthand the move of the Hoyer guitar shop from Schönbach/Luby to the...
Ilse Fischer delivered orders for Kirschnek on her scooter to the luthiers of the music town of Schönbach/Luby. Her father, Franz Kirschnek, established the company which specializes in exporting string instruments in 1933. After a move to Klingenthal, the company expanded to add harmonicas and...
Norman Treitl’s grandfather was Otto Josef Klier, who established the Klira company to be the third largest music instrument production during Bubenreuth’s boom years. Norman Treitl can tell how Klira started out producing violins, soon thereafter adding guitars and electric guitars to their...
Harald Lorenz is the fourth generation of peg turners originating from a traditional farming community named Ursprung/ Počátky in the Czech Republic. The family looks back on 125 years of producing tuning pegs. Father Emil and his brother Alfred Lorenz resettled to Bubenreuth after 1945 to provide...
Sebastian Dirr has relatives that play string instruments professionally, so it was only natural that they welcomed it when Sebastian decided to become a bow maker. After studying musicology, he started an apprenticeship at Paesold in 1988. Sebastian specializes in modern and historic bows. For...
Bastian Teller is a bridge maker in the 5th generation. Since he was a child, Bastian wanted to step into his father Manfred’s footsteps. After receiving his state certified diploma for mechanical engineering he started in the family’s workshop. Over many years he learned from his dad how to choose...
Günter Lobe is a violin maker who is known for his faithful copies of Stradivari and other famous violins. He was an apprentice from 1977 to 1980 in the Ernst Heinrich Roth workshop in Bubenreuth, Germany and in 2008 Günter became master of the guild of string instrument makers with about 50...
Rudolf Neudörfer, bow maker, grew up in the Czech Republic after 1945 and went to the Violin Making School in Luby, learning the craft of violin making from his teacher Bohumil Pechar and Hans Schmirler. He then worked at the Cremona cooperation for string instruments in town until he escaped...