Wilhelm Bruder Sohne Info Sources
By Bob Conant
A few days ago, Fritz Gellerman made the following request on the Automatic Music list:
> Subject: Bruder organs
>
> Bob Conant: Do you know if anyone has an opus list for Wilhelm Bruder Sohne
> organs? My barrel organ has serial number 1575, and I would like to find the
> date of manufacture at least--other information if available.
>
> Fritz Gellerman
Here is what I have been able to find out so far. As an owner of a WBS fairground organ, I have been interested in discovering any background on them that I can find. I will start by saying that I have NOT found an opus list, indicating serial numbers, dates of manufacture, customers shipped to, etc. At least not yet. Wilhelm Bruder Sohne organs were built in Waldkirch, Germany from the mid 1800's to the start of WWII (about 1939). After the war, the company did not continue because the older principles were elderly and the younger ones were killed in the war. Waldkirch was the home of not only Wilhelm Bruder Sohne organs but also: Gebruder Bruder, Alfred Bruder, Ignaz Bruder, A. Ruth and Sohne, Gebruder Weber, the Waldkirch branch of Gavioli et Cie (managed by Richard Bruder) and the Waldkirch branch of Limonaire (also managed by Richard Bruder). (Richard was considered the "black sheep" of the family by the other family members.) There were also several church organ factories in the village as well as many component subcontractors such as Josef Dopp who carved facades for WBS, Gebruder, Ruth and several others. Waldkirch is located in the heart of the Black Forest and was not significantly damaged by the war so there are many records that do still exist there. There is a local historical museum which has collected much of the history of the town and the organ industry there and is the repository of many old company records. However, nothing that I can find is yet published on Wilhelm Bruder Sohne regarding production details.
What I have found is as follows: There are two books published by the Waldkirch Museum. The first is "Waldkircher Orgelbauer" which tells much of the history of the various organ builders in the town. It includes such local stories as the one about one of the church organ builders who put out a contract to murder one of the other church organ builders in order to get a contract. The second book is "Waldkircher Dreh- und Jahrmarkt- Orgeln" which is more of a technical book about how the street and fair organs are constructed and operate. Both books have sections on Wilhelm Bruder Sohne and the first one gives a few sample production figures but they are far from complete. Both books are written in German.
Another source of information is the pages of "Het Pierrement", the quarterly publication of Kring Van Draiiorgelvrienden (Circle of friends of the street organ) published in the Netherlands and printed in Dutch. The April, 1987 issue has a large number of factory WBS photos printed in large format (black and white of course). The July 1994 issue has a nice article about the history of the WBS company (but no production information, drat).
As an aside, the January, April and July, 1993 issues of Het Pierrement has a massive three part article on Ruth organs complete with production figures, etc. Did you know that in the entire history of the company, Ruth built a TOTAL of 288 book organs ? I would think that the WBS total would be somewhat less than that.
I have also communicated with several individuals who have take a special interest in WBS organs but none of them have been able to amass any productions information that I know of. Two that come quickly to mind are Fred Dahlinger of Baraboo, WI, and Reg Turlington of the UK. Reg started at one time to keep track of existing WBS organs but he is currently in poor health and I am not sure that he was able to formally document what he had found out.
I am preparing to write to Wolfgang Brommer of Waldkirch. We talked briefly at the MBSI meeting in Orlando and he indicated that he does have some production information on WBS organs. Of course he did not have it with him but he promised to look up what he does have and let us have a look at it.
This diatribe ended up being longer than I intended, particularly in light of its scant useful content. I have been collecting information on German organs for about 10 years and you can see how little there is to show for it. Jody, feel free to edit this down or out as you see fit.
Bob Conant
Endicott, NY |
(Message sent Mon 4 Dec 1995, 00:35:52 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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