The Cheb Violin Making School is a public school in

Cheb Cheb (; german: Eger) is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 30,000 inhabitants. It lies on the river Ohře. Before the 1945 Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, expulsion of the German-speaking population ...

in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. It is the outgrowth of the Imperial-Royal Music School, a -year-old institution, located — from inception on 1 August 1873 until 2005 — in Luby. In 2005, the school moved to Cheb. It is the only surviving

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

-making school in the country, and one of five in all of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. Luby had been, and still is a town rich in tradition of generations of violin-making dating back to the sixteenth century.

History

; 1873–1918, Schönbach,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

At the initiative of Richard Dotzauer (1816–1887), the K.K. Music School in Schönbach launched on 1 August 1873. Initially, students received instruction in homes, and beginning 1882, at the Schönbach Town Hall. The school was founded exclusively to train musicians. But in October 1903, under professor Josef Anton Pfluger (1874–1914), the school launched a curriculum in string instrument making: violins, guitars, and sheet music publishing. By 1908, the school was predominately filled with students learning the art of violin and guitar making. On 24 June 1911 the foundation stone was laid for the school's first building on Bahnhofstrasse and teaching in that building commenced at the start of 1912. ; 1918–1938, Schönbach,

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

The musical instrument region, which included Schönbach, had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which collapsed after the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1918. ; 1938–1945, Schönbach,

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

In 1938, following the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, Germany took possession of the western region of Czechoslovakia known as the

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...

, and occupied it until the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. During this period, there was a sharp decline in the production of musical instruments from the region. ; 1946–1992, Luby, Czechoslovakia In 1946, right after

, Czechoslovakia restored the pre-1938 border and, among other things, changed the German town name of Schönbach to "Luby". In 1949, residents with German ethnicity, which included many violin-makers, were expelled from Czechoslovakia. About 1,600 Schönbach instrument makers settled in

Bubenreuth Bubenreuth is a municipality in the district of Erlangen-Höchstadt, in Bavaria, Germany. Location Bubenreuth is located near the river Regnitz and ca. 4 kilometers north of Erlangen with which it's structurally connected. Neighboring towns are ...

of Erlangen, which before then had only about 500 residents. Bubenreuth was, at that time, in the

American zone Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Franc ...

of what became

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. Bubenreuth eventually became known as the second Schönbach and even erected a replica of the Luthier statue of Schönbach. Since 1946, Bubenreuth became the third largest center in Germany (behind

Mittenwald Mittenwald is a German municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria. Geography Mittenwald is located approximately 16 kilometres to the south-east of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It is situated in the Valley of the River Isar, b ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

and

Markneukirchen Markneukirchen () is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in Saxony, Germany, close to the Czech border. It lies in between the Erzgebirge and the Fichtelgebirge in the Elstergebirge, southeast of Plauen, and northeast of Aš (Czech Republic) ...

Vogtland Vogtland (; cz, Fojtsko) is a region spanning the German states of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia and north-western Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It overlaps with and is largely contained within Euregio Egrensis. The name alludes to the former ...

) for the construction of stringed and plucked instruments and accessories. Following the

1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état In late February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia. It marked the onset of four decades of the party's rule in the country., sk, Február 1948) or ...

, Czechoslovakia fell under communist rule and the remaining violin making industry in Luby, supported by the Violin Making School, was nationalized under the name

Cremona Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' ( Po Valley). It is the capital of th ...

. ; 1993–2005 Luby,

The Violin Making School continued to train

luthiers A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers of ...

from around the globe. ; 2005–present,

, Czech Republic In 2005, the Violin Making School moved to Cheb.

The Schönbach School

The phrase, Schönbach School, when used in the context of pioneer luthiers from Schönbach, not the formal school, generally refers to three eras of influential luthiers: * Violin-maker, Elias Placht (born 1690), from 1721 is considered the founder of the violin-making school of Schönbach. The era of this school extended throughout the 18th century, when more than 40 violin makers resided in Schönbach. Master quality master instruments in Schönbach were built mainly by the Plachta family, but also by Sander, Hoyer, and Schuster families. * Beginning in the 1900, when electricity and a railway was introduced to Schönbach, combined with a sharp rise in demand for student instruments (particularly in North American), mass production of orchestral string instruments ensued. In the following years, more than 3000 people are employed in this field. Annual production in Schönbach was around 150,000 instruments. In 1927, a statue of a luthier was erected in Schönbach to memorialize all the unknown luthiers and music instrument masters who contributed to the development of this field in Schönbach region. This era of the Schönbach School was led by Karel Müller, Wilibald Wilfer, Alfred Neudörfer, and later, Josef Pötzl. * In the 1970s and 1980s, the Luby School was well-represented by master

Emil Lupač, Karel Zadražil, Josef Budil, Miroslav Pikart, Libor Šefl, and Jan Pötzl, all of whom had worked for the Cremona factory in Luby.

Notable alumni

* Rudolf Riedl (born 1920), attended from 1935 to 1937 * Otto Mettal (born 1910)

References

{{reflist, 30em, refs= ''Vision Bubenreutheum. Musik und Integration,'' by Chrisian Hoyer, :de:Bundesinstitut für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa ''Musik und Integration,'' Der Museumsverein "Bubenreutheum" – eine Bilanz zwischen Vision und Realität, by Chrisian Hoyer, ''Museum heute'' (periodical), ''Fakten – Tendenzen – Hilfen'' (2011), pps. 21–23 {{ISSN, 0944-8497
Sudeten German Home Collections from A to Z
'' edited by Klaus Mohr (retrieved 24 September 2013) ''Fünf Jahrhunderte Deutscher Musikinstrumentenbau (Five Centuries of German musical instruments),'' by :de:Hermann Moeck (1987) {{OCLC, 18454978, 75107738 {{ISBN, 3-87549-030-4 ''Deutsche Bogenmacher (German bow makers) — Book 1 1783–1945; Book 2 1945–2000,'' by Klaus Grünke, Hans-Karl Schmidt & Wolfgang Zunterer, Obersöchering: Wolfgang Zunterer (publisher) {{OCLC, 159872332, 313743919, 123302328 {{ISBN, 3-00-005839-7 ''Bubenreuth einst und heut (Bubenreuth then and today),'' by Heinz Reiss (1993) {{OCLC, 165094668
Musikfachschule
'' ''Egerer Zeitung,'' Vol. 61, Issue No. 5, May 2010, p. 82 ''The Violin Makers of Bohemia: Including Craftsmen of Moravia and Slovakia,'' by Karel Jalovec, London: Anglo-Italian Publication (1959) {{OCLC, 1654419 ''Umění houslařů (Art of Violin Makers),'' by Vladimír Pilař & František Šrámek, Prague: Panton (1986), p. 28 {{OCLC, 16708108
Heimatbuch der Musikstadt Schönbach (Music City Schönbach)
'' edited by the Festival Committee for the 650-Year Celebration of Schöenbach, published in

(1969) {{OCLC, 615201359

Videos

TV News Story about the Violin Making School Cheb
11 July 2012
''The violin makers of Bubenreuth'' (reflecting on Schönbach), produced by Jochen Reim
:de:Medienwerkstatt Franken (2001)

Other violin-making schools

* State School for Violin Making and Plucked Instruments in

, Germany * Ecole Internationale de Lutherie,

Marche-en-Famenne Marche-en-Famenne (, literally ''Marche in Famenne''; wa, Måtche-el-Fåmene, ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Luxembourg. The municipality consists of the following districts: Aye, Hargimont, Humain ...

, Belgium * ILSA, International Lutherie School Antwerpen, Belgium * Ecole Nationale de Lutherie,

Mirecourt Mirecourt () is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. Mirecourt is known for lace-making and the manufacture of musical instruments, particularly those of the Violin family. Inhabitants are called Mirecurtiens. G ...

, France * The Swiss School of Violin Making,

Brienz Brienz ( , , ) is a village and municipality on the northern shore of Lake Brienz, at the foot of the Brienzer Rothorn mountain, and in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. Besides the village of Brienz, the municipality includes the sett ...

* Ikaalinen Handicraft and Industrial Arts Institute,

Ikaalinen Ikaalinen (; sv, Ikalis) is a town and municipality of Finland. It is part of the Pirkanmaa region, located northwest of Tampere. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The munici ...

, Finland Bowed string instrument makers History of musical instruments Cheb Lutherie