Walter Hamma (22 September 1916 – 11 August 1988) was a German

violin maker 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 ...

. His father, Fridolin Hamma, was an influential violin maker. Walter Hamma was pupil of the violin making school in

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, ...

1933-1935. He worked with Ferdinand Jaura in Vienna and later for Caressa & Francais in Paris. During the Second World War, the workshop in Stuttgart was destroyed. After the war Fridolin and Walter Hamma built the shop up again. In 1948 Walter Hamma became a master violin maker and took over the shop in 1959. The firm of Hamma was one of the leading violin making workshops in Europe. Walter Hamma was president of the international violin making society EILA from 1963-1965. He was named as one of the leading experts for

stringed instruments String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...

, and his book about Italian and German instruments are still very important books in the world of violin making. In 1982 he retired and the family business that had existed since 1864 was closed.

References

* Willibald Leo Frh. v. Lütgendorff: '' Die Geigen- und Lautenmacher vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart,'' (new edition by Thomas Drescher)

External links

* 1916 births 1988 deaths German luthiers People from Stuttgart {{germany-music-bio-stub