The Cheb Violin Making School is a public school in

Cheb Cheb (; ) is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 33,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Ohře River. Before the Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, expulsion of Germans in 1945, the town was the centre of the G ...

in the

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

. 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 referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

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

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. 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, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

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 Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in 1918. ; 1938–1945, Schönbach,

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

In 1938, following the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

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

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and ) is a 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 border districts of Bohe ...

, and occupied it until the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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

American zone The American occupation zone in Germany (German language, German: ), also known as the US-Zone, and the Southwest zone, was one of the four Allied-occupied Germany, occupation zones established by the Allies of World War II in Germany west of t ...

of what became

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. 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, ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

and

Markneukirchen Markneukirchen () is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in Saxony, Germany, close to the Czech Republic, Czech border. It lies in the Elster Mountains (part of the Fichtel Mountains), southeast of Plauen, and northeast of Aš (Czech Republic) ...

Vogtland Vogtland (; ) 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 Euroregio Egrensis. The name alludes to the former leadershi ...

) 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 (KSČ), with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia through a coup d'état. It marked the beginning of four decades of the party's rule in t ...

, 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 ( , , ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po (river), Po river in the middle of the Po Valley. It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local city a ...

. ; 1993–2005 Luby,

The Violin Making School continued to train

luthiers A luthier ( ; ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments. Etymology The word ' is originally French and comes from ''luth'', the French word for "lute". The term was originally used for makers of lutes, but it came to be ...

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 Bubenreuth (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") is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Luxembourg. The municipality consists of the following districts: Aye, Hargimont, Humain, Marche-en-Famenne, ...

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

Mirecourt Mirecourt () is a Communes of France, commune in the Vosges (French department), Vosges Departments of France, department in Grand Est in northeastern France. Mirecourt is known for lace-making and the manufacture of musical instruments, particula ...

, France * The Swiss School of Violin Making,

Brienz Brienz ( , , ) is a village and Municipalities of Switzerland, 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, th ...

* Ikaalinen Handicraft and Industrial Arts Institute,

Ikaalinen Ikaalinen (; ) is a city 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 municipalities ...

, Finland Bowed string instrument makers Music organizations based in the Czech Republic Cheb Lutherie