Whatever Happened to the Kohlerts?

by Paul and Janet Lein

As a bassoonist and teacher who restores old bassoons, I have come across a wide variety of bassoons
bought by school systems in the last 50 years. Most student brands were hardly deserving of repair, let alone
restoration-the biggest exception being the brand "Kohlert" It was a wellmade, moderately-priced instrument
but disappeared in the sixties.

The great names in bassoon manufacturing are well known and their history common knowledge. I felt the
Kohlert bassoons had made the instrument accessible to thousands of students for several decades, yet little
had been written about the history and eventual demise of the brand. During our sabbaticals and ensuing trip
to West Germany and Czechoslovakia, my wife, a professor of German, and I were able to find and
interview people intimately connected with the Kohlert story: workers, apprentices, owners of the Kohlert
factories and others associated with the music industry.

Until the early part of the nineteenth century, there were numerous workshops producing bassoons without
much standardization of design (number of keys, etc.). In 1831 Johann Adam Heckel, who learned the craft
of instrument making in the Vogtland, collaborated with Carl Almenrader in Mainz, Germany to produce
what is now the German- (or Heckel-) system bassoon.[1] Eventually most workshops concentrated on this
type of bassoon,[2] as did Kohlert.[3] Vincent Kohlert (1817-1900) established his first woodwind
instrument workshop in Graslitz, Czechoslovakia (then Bohemia) in 1840.[4]

Skilled musical instrument makers and highquality musical instruments, particularly wind instruments, have
long come from an area in southeastern Saxony (today in the German Democratic Republic) and
northwestern Bohemia (today Czechoslovakia), including the Vogtland.[5] Towns like Markneukirchen,
Adorf, Klingenthal, Schoneck and Graslitz housed many instrument workshops. Graslitz in particular was
the site of a music academy. The students not only learned the craft of wind instrument making, but also
playing instruments and music theory.[6] After completing a lengthy apprenticeship in an existing workshop,
many established their own, furthering the reputation of this area as a center of instrument making.[7] Many
names we recognize came from this heartland of instrument production-to name a few: Riedl, Pchner,
Adler, Monnig, Huller, Schreiber and, of course, Heckel.[8]

The second generation of Kohlerts were: Rudolf, Daniel and Franz.[9] "V. Kohlert's Sohne" produced
instruments throughout the woodwind family and achieved world-wide recognition, as well as awards for
excellence in numerous exhibitions.[10] As his three sons grew into the business, the business grew as well.
Prior to WW 11 six hundred craftsmen were working in the Graslitz factory, making a full line of woodwind
instruments, from piccolos to contrabassoons. The bassoon models then available to the American market
were: a student model for about $95 and a professional model for about $135.[11] In addition to producing
instruments at a reasonable cost, they were the only ones to massproduce instruments while still maintaining
high quality.[12] Any worthwhile development made by one manufacturer was really copied by others. The
famous Kohlert "flat-top" design was an inexpensive version of the 3,000 series Heckels. A later design with
a more modern long joint and a less narrow bore was produced and built simultaneously with the flat-top for
several years. Many musicians considered these Graslitz instruments to be some of the best available.[13]
Kohlert reports having sold 1233 bassoons and contrabassoons between 1928 and 1930.[14] The serial
numbers from this factory included all instruments produced, not just bassoons.[15]

After WW II the firm was nationalized, the Kohlerts became workmen in their own factory, were no longer
allowed to put their stamp on the bassoons and the quality deteriorated immediately since many of the
skilled craftsmen were no longer there.[16]Strangely enough the oldest bassoon design (the flat-top) was the
only one produced in the immediate post-war shop, thus combining an obsolete design with poor
workmanship.[17] Needless to say, this was no longer an environment tolerable to the craftsmen and
musicians who valued the Kohlert instruments.

Germans living in this part of Czechoslovakia, called the "Sudetenland," were evacuated in large groups to
West Germany. They would generally be notified that they had twenty-four hours to appear at a certain train
station with a maximum of twenty kilograms of personal belongings, but nothing of value. Entire trainloads
were then resettled in towns that had previously agreed to take them.[18] This appears to have been the case
with the fourth generation of Kohlerts, thus explaining why so many former residents of Graslitz now live in
and around Winnenden, where the Kohlerts established their new factory.[19] The German federal states of
Baden-Wrttemberg, Bayern and Hessen were the new locations for many of these bassoon makers; for
example, Pchner and Schreiber (formerly in Graslitz) are now both located in Nauhneim bei Gro Gerau in
Hessen. Once established, these firms often tried to get more of their former employees to join them.[20]

The fourth generation of Kohlerts[21] consisted of three brothers. Max, the oldest, died in 1949 at about age
50 and was an instrument maker by training. Kurt, the middle brother, died in 1973 and was a businessman
by training. Ernst died in 1986 or '87 and was a musician. None of the three brothers ever married. After
arriving in the West, Ernst
worked for a short while with instrument makers near Frth, and then in 1948 the city of Winnenden
provided the brothers with a former barracks, actually a wooden house, in which to establish a new
workshop. They wrote to their former employees and many of them came to Winnenden to work in the new
shop. Because the Kohlert factory had made such a wide variety of instruments, the tooling and demands
upon various crafts made it especially difficult for the Kohlerts to resume full production at first.[22]

Between 1948 and 1950, there were about forty people employed in the Winnenden factory. At first, they
only repaired instruments, mainly for the American army. Truckloads of drums, Sousaphones, etc., would
arrive in Winnenden from all over Germany. There was no one there who had ever worked on a drum-these
wind instrument makers, but they all realized there was money to be made, and it didn't take them long to
figure out how to make repairs, improvised tools and all.[23]

Instrument production began in the fall of 1949 with saxophones, Boehm-system clarinets and Boehm-
system bass clarinets and soon thereafter, bassoons.[24] The serial numbers began with zero, rather than
continuing the numbers from the Graslitz factory.[25] The first apprentice at the new location was Albert
Moosmann, a young Swabian who started working there when the serial numbers stood at about 400.
Production soon expanded to encompass nearly all the woodwinds: recorders, saxophones, contrabassoons,
oboes and clarinets. The Winnenden bassoon was a further development of the best Graslitz design,
incorporating improvements in the boot joint, long joint and later additional keys and rollers.

In the golden years, 1953-54, about one hundred people were employed there, with about seventy working
in the "barracks" and another thirty working at home. These "home workers" had small shops in their homes
and would receive the materials, complete their part of the assembly process and return them. Several
craftsmen only made saxophone bodies, and even the bells and necks were made in Winnenden. The
Kohlerts also employed four tool-makers whose job it was to make the tools and apparatus used in the
factory according to the designs and needs of the instrument makers. Thus everything was done "in house"
with specially crafted tools.[26] In the postwar boom of American school and professional music, there was
tremendous demand for new instruments. In fact, about ninety percent of the Kohlert instruments made
during this time were exported.[27]

Then came the big mistake; the two remaining brothers, Kurt and Ernst, entered into contracts with
American wholesalers which guaranteed that the Kohlerts would supply instruments at the same price for
ten years. What the brothers didn't foresee was the onset of the "deutsche Wirtschaftswunder," or economic
miracle, when the materials costs and wages rose so dramatically. At this point they couldn't get out of these
long-term commitments-the penalty for breach of contract was severe. Instead of specializing, they
continued to make the whole range of instruments and the profit margin kept shrinking. Realizing they
couldn't continue in this manner, they tried to cut labor costs by minimizing handwork. It appears that this
move was rather poorly thought out and accomplished little. They hired engineers to figure out how to make
certain parts more efficiently, i.e., at lower cost per unit. Suddenly cases and cases of a single key, or some
other part, would arrive. The lower cost had been achieved by manufacturing quantities greater than they
could have used "if they had worked another hundred years on them" Suits were brought against these
consultants, but the Kohlerts lost and were left with a financial situation which required declaring
bankruptcy in 1965.[28]
Ironically, the demand in Europe for bassoons and tenor saxophones was very high, butt the Kohlerts
couldn't take advantage of this because they had to comply with existing agreements. Interviewed craftsmen
from those years feel that there wouldn't have been such a financial disaster if the oldest brother, Max, had
still been alive. Many considered him the cleverest of the three and felt that he would never have agreed to
such restrictive contracts. Many relatives, some quite distant, were employed more because of family ties
than instrument-making skills, further complicating the financial and production problems.[29] During 1966
about twenty employees continued producing instruments to meet bankruptcy obligations; there were plenty
of parts and materials available. The serial numbers stood at about 85,000 at the time of the bankruptcy.
Then one day, Fritz Pfannenschwarz, an industrialist from Nordheim who was interested in music as a
hobby, came to buy a bass clarinet and was told that nothing could be sold without consulting the
administrator of the bankrupt estate. He asked the price of the bankrupt firm, was told 40,000 DM and
bought it in 1967. Although plans had already been drawn for a new factory, nothing had come of them and
work continued in the "barracks" Later Pfannenschwarz moved final assembly operations and sales to
Nordheim, concentrating on flutes, saxophones and clarinets.[30]

Albert Moosmann, then self-employed, continued to build Oehler (German) system clarinets, and in 1981
Pfannenschwarz approached him about buying the company, as it was taking too much time from his other
concerns. In 1982 Albert Moosmann, once an apprentice in the firm, his son Bernd (and another partner no
longer associated with the firm) purchased the remains of Kohlert in Winnenden. Today the name "Bernd
Moosmann" appears on the bassoons, the firm having specialized on one instrument. Bernd Moosmann has
improved the lining, intonation, key strength and bocals, utilizing the input of professional bassoonists in the
Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, and has thus continued the evolution of the Kohlert designs.[31] Of the once great
Kohlert musical instrument empire, the only remaining descendent is the modern Moosmann bassoon. The
hand craftsmanship and continued development that made the original Graslitz instruments world-famous is
still being carried on in a small, scenic, Swabian shop in Germany. Vincenz Kohlert would be pleased.
ENDNOTES

1. Langwill, Lyndesay G. The Bassoon and Contrabassoon. London: Ernest Berm, 1965, p. 53.
2. The French-system bassoon, developed simultaneously, but independently, was used in France, Spain and much of South America. (Jansen, pp. 17-19).
3. Joppig, Gunther. The Oboe and the Bassoon. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. 1988, pp. 92-93.
4. Jansen, Will. The Bassoon. Buren, the Netherlands: Frits Knuf, 1978, p. 417.
5. Jansen, p. 23.
6. It was generally agreed that good instrument craftsmen should also be players. The Kohlert factory in Graslitz has always sponsored musical groups, even having an orchestra of
twenty-four saxophones. The tradition continued in Winnenden and now Waiblingen where many of the instrumentmakers play in local bandsiorchestras. (Interview with Albert
Moosmann, Waiblingen).
7. From the transcription of an interview with Albert Moosmann, Waiblingen. April 1989.
8. Jansen, pp 316-318. We include Pchner in this listing of Graslitz bassoon makers even though Jansen doesn't. Walter Pchner was kind enough to show us a catalog from the family
firm in Graslitz in which two models of bassoons were listed, April 1989.
9. William Waterhouse was kind enough to send us the prepublication information about the Kohlerts as it will appear in the New Lang-will Index.
10. Sigrid Krugel, "Erzgebirgler-Trompete fur den Jazzer aus New Orleans." Winnender Zeitung, Mittwoch, den 17. Dez. 1986.
11. Conversation with Dick Rusch, bassoonist and repairman in Lake Forest, IL.
12. Jansen, p. 323.
13. Even Louis Armstrong played a trumpet from Graslitz. (Winnender Zeitung)
14. Langwill, Lyndesay G. The Bassoon and Double Bassoon. London: Lowe and Brydone, 1948, pp 27-28.
15. From the transcription of an interview with Frantisek Faimann, a foreman at the present Amati Wind instrument factory in Graslitz (Kraslice), Czechoslovakia, April 1989.
16. Jansen, p. 331.
17. Jansen, pp. 331, 333,346. Amati, Ligna, Lignatone, Barbier and New Jewel were names stamped on inferior bassoons during the post-war period.
18. Conversation with Irmgard Dittmar, wife of the manager of the Schreiber woodwind instrument factory in Nauheim bei GroB Gerau. She was a "Sudetendeutsche" and recalls the
experience from her childhood. Jansen, however, reports that each person was allowed to take 75 kilos of personal belongings.
19. Winnender Zeitung
20. Conversation with Erich Berger, former Graslitz resident, later employee in the Kohlert factory in Winnenden and now proprietor of "Musikhaus Berger" in Winnenden.
21. Jansen, pp. 299-300.
22. Albert Moosmann
23. Albert Moosmann
24. Langwill, Lyndesay. An Index of Wind-Instrument Makers, 6th Ed. Edinburgh: Lindsay and Co., Ltd.: 1980, p. 95.
25. Albert Moosmann
26. Albert Moosmann
27. Article from an unknown newspaper in the Winnenden area from 1967, about the time the factory was bought by Pfannenschwarz. Copy obtained from Bernd Moosmann.
28. Albert Moosmann
29. Albert Moosmann
30. Newspaper article from 1967, about the time the factory was bought by Pfannenschwarz.
31. Bernd Moosmann, Waiblingen

BIOGRAPHIES

Paul Lein has been a bassoonist since 1966. He has played with several symphonies in Michigan, including The Grand Rapids Symphony, and is currently a member of the Midland
Symphony Orchestra. He has been a junior high school band director for 22 years and is currently self-employed as a restorer of bassoons.
Janet Lein has been a professor of German for 22 years and an amateur musician for a lot longer than that. She helped husband, Paul, restore bassoons when the practice was still in the
hobby stage.