FATHER of a TRADITION

By the early 20th century, the town of Schönbach was producing tens of thousands of violins per year – but the industry began with just one man. Christian Hoyer sifts through the records to reveal the life and legacy of Elias Placht

Hans Gügel’s 1951 monument to Elias Placht still stands in Bubenreuth

The year 2023 marked 300 years since the first documented mention of violin making in Schönbach. The town, now called Luby and part of the Czech Republic, was the first centre of violin making in Bohemia, and the most successful with around 150,000 violins being produced annually in the early 20th century. Following the Second World War, Schönbach’s German artisans were expelled from the town and moved to Bubenreuth in Bavaria, where their instrument making was encouraged; Bubenreuth remains Schönbach’s twin town. However, until recently the origins of its solid violin making tradition have always been shrouded in mystery.

The first mention of a violin maker in the town’s annals dates from 1723: specifically the Schönbach baptismal register for 13 July of that year, with the baptism of Johannes Ferdinand Placht. His father, Elias Placht (spelt ‘Plachte’ in the register), was listed on that date as a Geigenmacher (violin maker). Today, Placht has both a street and a monument named after him in Bubenreuth; however, no instrument has yet come to light that can be attributed to him.

In fact, the cradle of violin making in this region, which later became known as the ‘Saxon–Bohemian music corner’, was not in Schönbach but around six miles away in the neighbouring town of Graslitz (now Kraslice). One Johannes Artus was mentioned in the Graslitz records as a painter and ‘instrument maker’ as early as 1610. In 1631 a Melchior Lorenz was mentioned explicitly as a ‘violin maker’. Less than two generations later, in 1669, the violin makers of Graslitz came together to form a guild. In the following years, many of the guild members turned their backs on Bohemia for religious reasons, and immigrated to nearby Saxony – many of them to Markneukirchen in the Vogtland region. In the 1677 records of the newly founded violin makers’ guild there, we find the names of most of Graslitz’s violin makers. Graslitz eventually became a centre for wind instrument makers in the 19th century.

It should be mentioned in passing that one of the guild members in Markneukirchen was Johann Adam Pöpel, whose instruments still survive: the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg and Markneukirchen’s Musical Instrument Museum both own a viola by him. There is something to be said for the theory that Pöpel began his career in Schönbach; there was, for instance, an Adam Pöpel born in Schönbach around 1651. However, he neither trained any students nor established a violin making tradition there, and would have remained a unique outlier in the town. Even in 1580 there was not a single violin maker in Schönbach or in the rest of the ‘music corner’, according to popular legend.

The real Schönbach violin making tradition began with Elias Placht. He, his sons and their students were the origins of a continuous line of luthiers up to the present day. Placht was not a native of Schönbach but came from northern Bohemia; the 1721 register states he is sonsten zu Niemes gebürtig (‘otherwise a native of Niemes’, now Mimoň in the Czech Republic). It is curious that Schönbach’s first violin maker was not only a stranger to the area but also came from far away, especially considering that violin makers had existed in the region for around a century already. Placht was probably born in 1673 in the small village of Böhmisch Neuland near Mimoň, about 60 miles north of Prague and 95 miles north-east of Schönbach.

PLACHT, HIS SONS AND THEIR STUDENTS WERE THE ORIGINS OF A CONTINUOUS LINE OF LUTHIERS UP TO THE PRESENT DAY

The Schönbach church register of 1723 contains the first mention of Elias Placht as a Geigenmacher (violin maker)

PILSEN/PLZEN REGIONAL ARCHIVES

THE TRAVELS OF ELIAS PLACHT

Little is known about Placht’s life. Willibald Lütgendorff wrote in 1904 that he was initially a forester, but this is certainly incorrect. What is certain is that he served as a soldier in a regiment belonging to the Ansbach margrave, a military commander who rented out his troops in exchange for subsidies. These troops saw action in the Great Northern War (1700–21), in which they were loaned out to Augustus II ‘the Strong’, who was based in Dresden. The records of the Ansbach margrave are unfortunately lost, but luckily the people of Dresden kept their own precise details of the soldiers they rented, and this part of the army is well documented in Saxony’s main state archive.

In 1715 a recruitment drive was held in the town of Lübben, and among the regiment’s personnel we find an ‘Elias Blach’, native of ‘Nimsch in Böhmen’. The recruitment list also tells us that Placht had already been recruited in 1699 in the town of Ansbach, Franconia, and had served as a Jäger (rifleman) for a good 16 years. This means he served in the light infantry. Riflemen operated in smaller units and loose formations, in order to take advantage of the terrain and fire shots at selected targets such as enemy officers and gunners. Their role in combat was to make it easier for their own side to deploy troops.

Placht is also mentioned as being already married, and the father of three children. His wife was named Barbara Steinbauer and came from Sachsen, a little village in Franconia, as can be gleaned from a later entry in the Schönbach Examen Sponsorum (a book listing details of brides and grooms before their marriage). The entry was discovered by the Schönbach chaplain and local historian Alois Tille, who in the 1920s wrote several source-based essays with other local historians. These refuted the old wives’ tales of the region and made great headway in discovering the real origins of violin making in Schönbach. Tille made a great contribution to the town’s history, and to the rediscovery of Elias Placht.

The 1723 entry in the church register confirms that Elias met Barbara in the lands of the Ansbach margrave, in whose service he joined the army. Barbara’s small village, Sachsen an der Altmühl, is not far from Ansbach, and is now part of the town of Leutershausen.

It was not until 1721, when he was over 40 years old, that Elias Placht’s name first appeared in a church register in Schönbach. He apparently settled there permanently after completing his active service. The question inevitably arises as to why, after spending so long in the Ansbach margrave’s army, he went to Schönbach of all places. Why would he not have returned to his birthplace in northern Bohemia – or settle in his wife’s homeland in Franconia? These questions cannot yet be answered conclusively, but there are a few plausible possibilities. First of all, the Schönbach town priest, Josef Arlet (1683–1739) was also a native of Niemes and was most likely a close relative of Placht, possibly his uncle or cousin on his mother’s side. Arlet had worked in Schönbach since 1702, initially as a chaplain and from 1712 as the town’s priest.

Another important reason for Placht to return to his homeland of Bohemia may have been its strong economic recovery at the time. Since the turn of the century, Bohemia had been experiencing a new period of prosperity, and a spirit of optimism could be felt everywhere. The architecture of the Bohemian Baroque is representative of this development. In Schönbach, too, there was a major construction boom and a noticeable desire for regeneration. To give two examples: in 1715 the Schönbach hospital was renovated and a little later a small hospital church was built. Nineteen years later, in 1734 the municipality dared to renovate the venerable parish church in the Baroque style. Experts were needed for all this work, which is why Josef Arlet brought his compatriot, the Niemes sculptor Johann Franz Henrich (1689–1758), to Schönbach. For the flourishing church music, new instruments were needed to cater for contemporary tastes.

IT WAS NOT UNTIL 1721, WHEN HE WAS OVER 40, THAT ELIAS PLACHT’S NAME FIRST APPEARED IN A CHURCH REGISTER IN SCHÖNBACH

Placht may have fought in the army of Augustus II, ‘the Strong’, during the Great Northern War

It was during this atmosphere of renewal that Elias Placht came to the small town in western Bohemia, in what was then the Elbogen district. As an ex-soldier he was probably receiving a small pension that could at least serve as basic support for him.

His status as a resident of Schönbach was not yet equal to that of the citizens when the first entries appeared in the church register. The baptismal entry of his son Joannes Wenceslaus from 26 June 1721 states merely that he ‘lives here in Schönbach’.

It is notable that, in addition to the godfather, a second witness is named: Johann Michael Öesterreicher, a teacher from the neighbouring parish of Frauenreuth. At that time, schoolteachers were also entrusted with church music.

Placht is said to have learnt violin making at this time, from a luthier named Götzel in Wernitzgrün – a town in the Vogtland halfway between Markneukirchen and Schönbach. This concentration of expertise in violin making in the immediate vicinity of the Bohemian border, as well as in Schönbach’s neighbour Graslitz, would certainly have been the main reason for Placht to come to Schönbach. If it is true that Placht’s teacher was in Wernitzgrün, then Schönbach violin making would have been an offshoot of the Markneukirchen industry – a ‘re-import’ from Saxony back to Bohemia.

It is possible that Placht had already acquired knowledge of violin making elsewhere. As a soldier he travelled around a lot, and got to know both court bands and music making in towns. In addition, soldiers were often dependent on earning extra money on the side, or to bridge the long periods of inactivity. It could be assumed that Placht had taken advantage of the opportunity to help out with instrument making. Maybe he had made friends with someone from the Vogtland during his military service in Saxony. In any case, several Vogtlanders served in his unit and perhaps they had been involved in instrument making. In addition his unit was stationed in Adorf in the Vogtland in the winter of 1714–15. From here, he could have visited his relatives in Schönbach, ten miles away, before 1721 and come into contact with the widespread craft of violin making in the region. He must have had an interest and an affinity for the craft and the violin.

Viola d’amore by Elias Placht’s grandson Johann Franz, on display at the Huntington Museum of Art, WV, US.

STORE PHOTO CHRISTIAN HOYER COLLECTION

When Elias Placht died in Schönbach on 5 March 1737, he was entered in the death register as a ‘violin maker from here […] in his 62nd year’. He left behind his wife Barbara and four sons who were also already practising violin making by then: Elias Jr (born before 1721, died 1793), Matthäus Wenzel (born before 1721), Johann Wenzel (1721–1751) and Johann Ferdinand (b.1723). He also had two daughters: Rosina Susanne (b.1726) and Anna Margaretha (b.1728).

In 1868 Josef Placht immigrated to St Louis with his family and set up a musical instrument business

Records from the mid-18th century attest that the makers of Markneukirchen gave lessons to ‘Plachte’ in Schönbach, who then trained his sons, who in turn perfected their craft even further away in Prague. We know this from the extensive documents pertaining to the so-called Geigenkrieg (‘Violin War’) of 1771. This related to a treaty between Markneukirchen and Klingenthal intended to prohibit the sale of instruments from one town to the other. The treaty was broken multiple times in the decades that followed, and both towns also accused one another of having trained Bohemian apprentices (such as ‘Plachte’) who then went back to their home country, thus transplanting the trade abroad.

The Schönbach church records from the second half of the 18th century onwards clearly show that violin making was actually progressing well in Schönbach. These records were mostly written in Latin, and we often find the word ‘Fidifex’ mentioned in the Schönbach registers (fidis = string; ‘fex’ from facere, to make). The later Mittenwald pastor obviously preferred ‘Plectropeus’ as a Latin translation.

Until recently the members of the Placht family in Schönbach and later in Bubenreuth bore the nickname ‘Geigerer’ so Josef Placht would have been called ‘Geigerer-Josef’ and so on. In the course of the 18th century, in addition to Placht’s sons, there were other Schönbach families who were active in violin making.

RECORDS FROM THE ERA ATTEST THAT IT WAS THE MAKERS OF MARKNEUKIRCHEN WHO GAVE LESSONS TO ‘PLACHTE’

A 1920s postcard showing the ‘music city’ of Schönbach

The Gebrüder Placht firm of string makers was founded in 1825 and operated until 1945

PHOTOS CHRISTIAN HOYER COLLECTION

These include names that still resonate today, such as Sandner (first recorded in 1742), Schuster (1761), Hoyer (1762), Fuchs (1780), Siebenhüner (1781), Himmer (1782), Weller (1785), Fritsch (1786), Lustkandl (1787), Schöner (1788), Diener (1789), Klier (1792), Köhler (1793), Schäfer, Winter, Prüller, Fischer (all 1794) and Wilfer (1798).

Elias Placht’s biography still has many gaps. The biggest is that no instrument can be attributed either to him or to any of his sons. Currently, the earliest known Placht instrument is a viola d’amore by Johann Franz Placht (born 1746), a grandson of the founding father, which is exhibited in the Huntington Museum of Art in West Virginia, US.

The oldest known instrument from Schönbach is a violin made by Johann Georg Sandner. Based on a dendrochronological age determination of the violin top, the youngest growth ring can be dated to 1748. The Baroque violin was acquired for the collection of the Bubenreuth Museum in 2020. A viola d’amore by the same luthier was made in 1771 and is privately owned.

A 1785 violin by Joseph Anton Schuster was auctioned in 2015 at the Dorotheum auction house in Vienna, and a violin by Johann Andreas Hümmer/Himmer (1758–1836) has been in the Bubenreuth collection since 2016. According to its label the violin was made in 1802, and with further examination and clues from the violin’s appearance, this year of manufacture has finally been confirmed.

Research into the beginnings of the Schönbach violin makers is still in its infancy. The hope is that further instruments will become known that are attributed to a family member of the Placht dynasty or another early Schönbach violin maker. If any readers have any information about this, please contact the Bubenreuth Museum or the author of this article: c.hoyer@bubenreutheum.de

TRANSLATION BY CHRISTIAN LLOYD

FURTHER READING

Further information and research about Elias Placht and the Schönbach violin makers can be found in the following books, all recently published:

Musikinstrumentenbau in Bubenreuth und Umgebung. Von 1945 bis heute

Christian Hoyer Bubenreuth, 2020

Verbunden durch Musik und Geschichte. Schönbach / Luby –Markneukirchen –Bubenreuth

Christian Hoyer, Enrico Weller Markneukirchen, 2021

‘Die Schönbacher Geigenbauer. Anmerkungen zu Forschungsstand und Forschungsfragen’, in: Der Streichinstrumentenbau im sächsischen Vogtland ed. Monika Lustig, Christian Philipsen Augsburg, 2023