As a bassoonist and teacher who
restores old bassoons, I have come across a wide variety of bassoons
bought by school systems in the last 50 years. Most student brands
were hardly deserving of repair, let alone restoration-the biggest
exception being the brand "Kohlert" It was a wellmade,
moderately-priced instrument but disappeared in the sixties.
The great names in bassoon manufacturing are well known and their
history common knowledge. I felt the Kohlert bassoons had made
the instrument accessible to thousands of students for several
decades, yet little had been written about the history and eventual
demise of the brand. During our sabbaticals and ensuing trip to
West Germany and Czechoslovakia, my wife, a professor of German,
and I were able to find and interview people intimately connected
with the Kohlert story: workers, apprentices, owners of the Kohlert
factories and others associated with the music industry.
Until the early part of the nineteenth century, there were numerous
workshops producing bassoons without much standardization of design
(number of keys, etc.). In 1831 Johann Adam Heckel, who learned
the craft of instrument making in the Vogtland, collaborated with
Carl Almenrader in Mainz, Germany to produce what is now the German-
(or Heckel-) system bassoon.[1] Eventually
most workshops concentrated on this type of bassoon,[2]
as did Kohlert.[3] Vincent Kohlert
(1817-1900) established his first woodwind instrument workshop
in Graslitz, Czechoslovakia (then Bohemia) in 1840.[4]
Skilled musical instrument makers and highquality musical instruments,
particularly wind instruments, have long come from an area in
southeastern Saxony (today in the German Democratic Republic)
and northwestern Bohemia (today Czechoslovakia), including the
Vogtland.[5] Towns like Markneukirchen,
Adorf, Klingenthal, Schoneck and Graslitz housed many instrument
workshops. Graslitz in particular was the site of a music academy.
The students not only learned the craft of wind instrument making,
but also playing instruments and music theory.[6]
After completing a lengthy apprenticeship in an existing workshop,
many established their own, furthering the reputation of this
area as a center of instrument making.[7]
Many names we recognize came from this heartland of instrument
production-to name a few: Riedl, Püchner, Adler, Monnig,
Huller, Schreiber and, of course, Heckel.[8]
The second generation of Kohlerts were: Rudolf, Daniel and Franz.[9] "V. Kohlert's Sohne" produced
instruments throughout the woodwind family and achieved world-wide
recognition, as well as awards for excellence in numerous exhibitions.[10] As his three sons grew into the business,
the business grew as well. Prior to WW 11 six hundred craftsmen
were working in the Graslitz factory, making a full line of woodwind
instruments, from piccolos to contrabassoons. The bassoon models
then available to the American market were: a student model for
about $95 and a professional model for about $135.[11]
In addition to producing instruments at a reasonable cost, they
were the only ones to massproduce instruments while still maintaining
high quality.[12] Any worthwhile development
made by one manufacturer was really copied by others. The famous
Kohlert "flat-top" design was an inexpensive version
of the 3,000 series Heckels. A later design with a more modern
long joint and a less narrow bore was produced and built simultaneously
with the flat-top for several years. Many musicians considered
these Graslitz instruments to be some of the best available.[13] Kohlert reports having sold 1233 bassoons
and contrabassoons between 1928 and 1930.[14]
The serial numbers from this factory included all instruments
produced, not just bassoons.[15]
After WW II the firm was nationalized, the Kohlerts became workmen
in their own factory, were no longer allowed to put their stamp
on the bassoons and the quality deteriorated immediately since
many of the skilled craftsmen were no longer there.[16]Strangely
enough the oldest bassoon design (the flat-top) was the only one
produced in the immediate post-war shop, thus combining an obsolete
design with poor workmanship.[17] Needless
to say, this was no longer an environment tolerable to the craftsmen
and musicians who valued the Kohlert instruments.
Germans living in this part of Czechoslovakia, called the "Sudetenland,"
were evacuated in large groups to West Germany. They would generally
be notified that they had twenty-four hours to appear at a certain
train station with a maximum of twenty kilograms of personal belongings,
but nothing of value. Entire trainloads were then resettled in
towns that had previously agreed to take them.[18]
This appears to have been the case with the fourth generation
of Kohlerts, thus explaining why so many former residents of Graslitz
now live in and around Winnenden, where the Kohlerts established
their new factory.[19] The German federal
states of Baden-Württemberg, Bayern and Hessen were the new
locations for many of these bassoon makers; for example, Püchner
and Schreiber (formerly in Graslitz) are now both located in Nauhneim
bei Groß Gerau in Hessen. Once established, these firms
often tried to get more of their former employees to join them.[20]
The fourth generation of Kohlerts[21]
consisted of three brothers. Max, the oldest, died in 1949 at
about age 50 and was an instrument maker by training. Kurt, the
middle brother, died in 1973 and was a businessman by training.
Ernst died in 1986 or '87 and was a musician. None of the three
brothers ever married. After arriving in the West, Ernst
worked for a short while with instrument makers near Fürth,
and then in 1948 the city of Winnenden provided the brothers with
a former barracks, actually a wooden house, in which to establish
a new workshop. They wrote to their former employees and many
of them came to Winnenden to work in the new shop. Because the
Kohlert factory had made such a wide variety of instruments, the
tooling and demands upon various crafts made it especially difficult
for the Kohlerts to resume full production at first.[22]
Between 1948 and 1950, there were about forty people employed
in the Winnenden factory. At first, they only repaired instruments,
mainly for the American army. Truckloads of drums, Sousaphones,
etc., would arrive in Winnenden from all over Germany. There was
no one there who had ever worked on a drum-these wind instrument
makers, but they all realized there was money to be made, and
it didn't take them long to figure out how to make repairs, improvised
tools and all.[23]
Instrument production began in the fall of 1949 with saxophones,
Boehm-system clarinets and Boehm-system bass clarinets and soon
thereafter, bassoons.[24] The serial
numbers began with zero, rather than continuing the numbers from
the Graslitz factory.[25] The first
apprentice at the new location was Albert Moosmann, a young Swabian
who started working there when the serial numbers stood at about
400. Production soon expanded to encompass nearly all the woodwinds:
recorders, saxophones, contrabassoons, oboes and clarinets. The
Winnenden bassoon was a further development of the best Graslitz
design, incorporating improvements in the boot joint, long joint
and later additional keys and rollers.
In the golden years, 1953-54, about one hundred people were employed
there, with about seventy working in the "barracks"
and another thirty working at home. These "home workers"
had small shops in their homes and would receive the materials,
complete their part of the assembly process and return them. Several
craftsmen only made saxophone bodies, and even the bells and necks
were made in Winnenden. The Kohlerts also employed four tool-makers
whose job it was to make the tools and apparatus used in the factory
according to the designs and needs of the instrument makers. Thus
everything was done "in house" with specially crafted
tools.[26] In the postwar boom of American
school and professional music, there was tremendous demand for
new instruments. In fact, about ninety percent of the Kohlert
instruments made during this time were exported.[27]
Then came the big mistake; the two remaining brothers, Kurt and
Ernst, entered into contracts with American wholesalers which
guaranteed that the Kohlerts would supply instruments at the same
price for ten years. What the brothers didn't foresee was the
onset of the "deutsche Wirtschaftswunder," or economic
miracle, when the materials costs and wages rose so dramatically.
At this point they couldn't get out of these long-term commitments-the
penalty for breach of contract was severe. Instead of specializing,
they continued to make the whole range of instruments and the
profit margin kept shrinking. Realizing they couldn't continue
in this manner, they tried to cut labor costs by minimizing handwork.
It appears that this move was rather poorly thought out and accomplished
little. They hired engineers to figure out how to make certain
parts more efficiently, i.e., at lower cost per unit. Suddenly
cases and cases of a single key, or some other part, would arrive.
The lower cost had been achieved by manufacturing quantities greater
than they could have used "if they had worked another hundred
years on them" Suits were brought against these consultants,
but the Kohlerts lost and were left with a financial situation
which required declaring bankruptcy in 1965.[28]
Ironically, the demand in Europe for bassoons and tenor saxophones
was very high, butt the Kohlerts couldn't take advantage of this
because they had to comply with existing agreements. Interviewed
craftsmen from those years feel that there wouldn't have been
such a financial disaster if the oldest brother, Max, had still
been alive. Many considered him the cleverest of the three and
felt that he would never have agreed to such restrictive contracts.
Many relatives, some quite distant, were employed more because
of family ties than instrument-making skills, further complicating
the financial and production problems.[29]
During 1966 about twenty employees continued producing instruments
to meet bankruptcy obligations; there were plenty of parts and
materials available. The serial numbers stood at about 85,000
at the time of the bankruptcy. Then one day, Fritz Pfannenschwarz,
an industrialist from Nordheim who was interested in music as
a hobby, came to buy a bass clarinet and was told that nothing
could be sold without consulting the administrator of the
bankrupt estate. He asked the price of the bankrupt firm, was
told 40,000 DM and bought it in 1967. Although plans had already
been drawn for a new factory, nothing had come of them and work
continued in the "barracks" Later Pfannenschwarz moved
final assembly operations and sales to Nordheim, concentrating
on flutes, saxophones and clarinets.[30]
Albert Moosmann, then self-employed, continued to build Oehler
(German) system clarinets, and in 1981 Pfannenschwarz approached
him about buying the company, as it was taking too much time from
his other concerns. In 1982 Albert Moosmann, once an apprentice
in the firm, his son Bernd (and another partner no longer associated
with the firm) purchased the remains of Kohlert in Winnenden.
Today the name "Bernd Moosmann" appears on the bassoons,
the firm having specialized on one instrument. Bernd Moosmann
has improved the lining, intonation, key strength and bocals,
utilizing the input of professional bassoonists in the Stuttgart
Radio Orchestra, and has thus continued the evolution of the Kohlert
designs.[31]
Of the once great Kohlert musical instrument empire, the only remaining descendent is the modern Moosmann bassoon. The hand craftsmanship and continued development that made the original Graslitz instruments world-famous is still being carried on in a small, scenic, Swabian shop in Germany. Vincenz Kohlert would be pleased.
ENDNOTES
1. Langwill, Lyndesay G. The Bassoon
and Contrabassoon. London: Ernest Berm, 1965, p. 53.
2. The French-system bassoon, developed
simultaneously, but independently, was used in France, Spain and
much of South America. (Jansen, pp. 17-19).
3. Joppig, Gunther. The Oboe and the
Bassoon. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. 1988, pp. 92-93.
4. Jansen, Will. The Bassoon. Buren,
the Netherlands: Frits Knuf, 1978, p. 417.
5. Jansen, p. 23.
6. It was generally agreed that good instrument
craftsmen should also be players. The Kohlert factory in Graslitz
has always sponsored musical groups, even having an orchestra
of twenty-four saxophones. The tradition continued in Winnenden
and now Waiblingen where many of the instrumentmakers play in
local bandsiorchestras. (Interview with Albert Moosmann, Waiblingen).
7. From the transcription of an interview
with Albert Moosmann, Waiblingen. April 1989.
8. Jansen, pp 316-318. We include Püchner
in this listing of Graslitz bassoon makers even though Jansen
doesn't. Walter Püchner was kind enough to show us a catalog
from the family firm in Graslitz in which two models of bassoons
were listed, April 1989.
9. William Waterhouse was kind enough
to send us the prepublication information about the Kohlerts as
it will appear in the New Lang-will Index.
10. Sigrid Krugel, "Erzgebirgler-Trompete
fur den Jazzer aus New Orleans." Winnender Zeitung,
Mittwoch, den 17. Dez. 1986.
11. Conversation with Dick Rusch, bassoonist
and repairman in Lake Forest, IL.
12. Jansen, p. 323.
13. Even Louis Armstrong played a trumpet
from Graslitz. (Winnender Zeitung)
14. Langwill, Lyndesay G. The Bassoon
and Double Bassoon. London: Lowe and Brydone, 1948, pp 27-28.
15. From the transcription of an interview
with Frantisek Faimann, a foreman at the present Amati Wind instrument
factory in Graslitz (Kraslice), Czechoslovakia, April 1989.
16. Jansen, p. 331.
17. Jansen, pp. 331, 333,346. Amati,
Ligna, Lignatone, Barbier and New Jewel were names stamped on
inferior bassoons during the post-war period.
18. Conversation with Irmgard Dittmar,
wife of the manager of the Schreiber woodwind instrument factory
in Nauheim bei GroB Gerau. She was a "Sudetendeutsche"
and recalls the experience from her childhood. Jansen, however,
reports that each person was allowed to take 75 kilos of personal
belongings.
19. Winnender Zeitung
20. Conversation with Erich Berger, former
Graslitz resident, later employee in the Kohlert factory in Winnenden
and now proprietor of "Musikhaus Berger" in Winnenden.
21. Jansen, pp. 299-300.
22. Albert Moosmann
23. Albert Moosmann
24. Langwill, Lyndesay. An Index of
Wind-Instrument Makers, 6th Ed. Edinburgh: Lindsay and Co.,
Ltd.: 1980, p. 95.
25. Albert Moosmann
27. Article from an unknown newspaper
in the Winnenden area from 1967, about the time the factory was
bought by Pfannenschwarz. Copy obtained from Bernd Moosmann.
28. Albert Moosmann
30. Newspaper article from 1967, about
the time the factory was bought by Pfannenschwarz.
31. Bernd Moosmann, Waiblingen
BIOGRAPHIES
Paul Lein has been a bassoonist since 1966. He has played with
several symphonies in Michigan, including The Grand Rapids Symphony,
and is currently a member of the Midland Symphony Orchestra. He
has been a junior high school band director for 22 years and is
currently self-employed as a restorer of bassoons.
Janet Lein has been a professor of German for 22 years and an
amateur musician for a lot longer than that. She helped husband,
Paul, restore bassoons when the practice was still in the hobby
stage.