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 musicol...
Thomas Dotzauer is a master mandolin builder from the region of famed music instrument production center Bubenreuth in Germany. He did his apprenticeship in guitar production of Walter Ho...
Gerhard Dotzauer has made a living selling musical instrument parts to companies worldwide. He provides bridges, exotic woods, machine heads, and specializes in necks for banjos with moth...
Dieter Fischer comes from a family of luthiers and started working for Höfner in Bubenreuth when he was 14 years old. He continued working for the next 56 years for Höfner, of which 30 ye...
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 e...
Walter Glaßl is leading the Walter Geipel Company known for producing rosin for string instruments in Bubenreuth, now in the third generation. The company was founded 1908 by Walter Geipe...
Manfred Gleissner is a part of Gleissner tonewoods, which is known for supplying high quality tonewood to luthiers around the world. Grandfather Anton Gleissner founded the company with h...
Richard Grünke of Richard Grünke & Söhne GmbH which is located close to Bubenreuth produces high quality bows. Richard’s sons, Klaus and Thomas, run the business today but their fathe...
Reiner Hammerl is the son of Josef Hammerl, who in 1938 opened a drugstore in Germany. Among the products he created himself were natural wood varnishes and stains that soon became well u...
Gerold Hannabach was born in Schönbach, Czechoslovakia into a family with a long tradition in the building of music instruments. In 1948 he did his apprenticeship at the guitar manufactur...
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 ...
Karl Hoyer was born in Schönbach/Luby in the Czech Republic to a family of violin makers. As a child, he helped in his father’s workshop, and in 1944, went to the school of violin making ...
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 ...
Walter Hoyer took over the guitar production shop that his great grandfather had started and for which his father, Arnold Hoyer, made famous during the late 1940s and 50s. Arnold passed a...
Max Junger is the director of Pyramid Junger GmbH. He carries on the family tradition of string making in the 6th generation. Founded in 1850 as A. Osmanek Musikinstrumenten & Saitenf...
Ernst Lang married Paula Prüller 1958 in Luby, Czech Republic, formerly named Schönbach, and both came from families involved in the production of musical instruments. Ernst Lang’s father...
Paula Lang’s father, Andreas Prüller, owned a company in Schönbach producing purflings for violins, cellos and guitars. After World War II, the Czech government started nationalizing prod...
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 Bu...
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...
Kurt Lutz was a well-regarded German luthier who, along with many other instrument makers, settled in Bubenreuth, Germany following World War II. Mr. Lutz provided a first-hand account of...
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...
Walter Paulus is president of Werner Paulus GmbH, which is located not far from the town of Bubenreuth and produces bow parts of the finest quality. Starting in 1920, Walter’s father-in-l...
Herbert Riedl was born into a family of violin makers and grew up on the street where Höfner produced guitars including the world-famous Beatles bass. With his friends he earned money sta...
Ernst Roth is a guitar luthier who over the last 40 years of his career has dedicated himself to training younger craftsman in the art of violin and guitar making. He was born in the musi...
Wolfgang Schnabl is a luthier in Bubenreuth, Germany and has been particularly successful in creating cellos. After learning the craft at the state vocational school for instrument making...
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 connec...
Roland Schuster is a bridge maker in the town of Bubenreuth, which has been the center of production for string instruments in Germany since 1945. He started his craft in the workshop of ...
Lothar Seifert came from a family of musical instrument makers in the Kirchberg area of Germany. His father, Oskar, began making bows in 1924 and by 1932 had set up a workshop in Graslitz...
Ewald Sommer’s grandfather, Ignatz Sommer, started building machine heads for stringed instruments in 1911. Early on, he supplied Höfner with his products for basses, guitars, mandolins, ...
Norbert Stumpf was elected the mayor of Bubenreuth in 2014 and actively promotes the legacy of his town as an important center for stringed instrument production. At the end of World War ...
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 m...
Horst Teller was the son of Oskar Teller, who formed a small workshop in 1929 in Schonbach to make musical instruments. After World War II, the company was rebuilt in Bubenreuth in 1949 a...
