Wilhelm Brückner (luthier)



Wilhelm Brückner (born 30 September 1932 in Erfurt) is an East German violin maker.

Life and work
In 1960 Wilhelm Brückner took over the violin making company, which had been founded in Erfurt in 1897 by his grandfather of the same name (also Wilhelm Brückner). Before Wilhelm Brückner the Elder (1874 to 1925 – from a traditional Vogtland violin making dynasty) settled in Erfurt, he had received training from the violin makers Giuseppe Fiorini and Alfred Stelzner, on which his descendants (now in the fifth generation ) could build. Wilhelm Brückner received the master craftsman's certificate in 1956. His masterpiece was a viola. The viola building was then also the main focus of his further professional activity. In the following years he developed into an outstanding violin maker in the GDR and the Eastern Bloc. In 1972 he won the gold medal in Poland at the most prestigious and oldest violin making competition named after Henryk Wieniawski. In 1979 he was the first violin maker to be accepted into the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR, which above all brought easier travel to the West. Despite political difficulties he was able to teach Swedish violin makers and successfully take part in the international violin making competition "Antonius Stradivari" in Cremona in 1982 and in the "Louis Spohr violin making competition" in Kassel in 1983, where he was the most successful participant from the Eastern Bloc with six prizes. In order to solve the serious problems of the still freelance violin makers in the GDR primarily with the procurement of materials, he initiated the establishment of the "specialist group of violin makers of the GDR" in 1978 and became its first deputy chairman. Together with Alfred Lipka, he had started early on to develop his own viola model (the so-called "wide-assed Brückner viola"), which was relatively broad in the lower part and had a sonorous "black" sound, which was then often copied by colleagues and was acquired by numerous internationally renowned soloists. Star conductor Kurt Masur affirmed in a letter in 2005: Wilhelm Brückner's instruments "were always so valuable that they could be compared with old Italians.

Customers were and still are, for example: Hans-Christian Bartel, Hatto Beyerle, Oleg Kagan, Alfred Lipka, Tatjana Masurenko, Nils Mönkemeyer, Sophia Reuter, André Rieu, Matthias Sannemüller.

As the oldest active member of the colleagues in the Association of German Violin Makers and Bow Makers, Wilhelm Brückner built and repaired in the same workshop as his grandfather, from 1981 together with his daughter, violin maker Ruth Brückner (born 1962). On the occasion of his 90th birthday, Brückner announced his retirement from active work.

Awards and exhibitions
Source: Menzel P. 17


 * 1972 gold medal at the H. Wieniawski International Violin Making Competition in Poznan (Poland)
 * 1979 Diploma International Triennial Antonio Stradivari Cremona Italy
 * 1981 Golden Groblicz at the International Violin Making Competition H. Wieniawski for the best artistic design and special prize from the Association of German Violin Makers
 * 1982 4th place International Triennial Antonio Stradivari Cremona Italy
 * 1983 Most successful participant from the Eastern Bloc with a silver medal and five diplomas at the International Louis Spohr Competition Kassel
 * Decoration of Honor in Gold for Crafts
 * 1982 4th place International Triennial Antonio Stradivari Cremona Italy
 * 1983 Most successful participant from the Eastern Bloc with a silver medal and five diplomas at the International Louis Spohr Competition Kassel
 * Decoration of Honor in Gold for Crafts
 * Decoration of Honor in Gold for Crafts
 * Decoration of Honor in Gold for Crafts

Exhibitions in United States (1978 San Diego, 1997 Austin), Italy (1979 Cremona), Great Britain (1995 London), Netherlands (1998 Maastricht), Japan (1974 Tokyo), Poland (1981 Poznan), Canada (1981 Toronto), Austria (1992 Vienna, 2019 Salzburg) as well as in various German cities