Kohlert and Stencils
|
||||||
1948: The "last" generation
of the Kohlerts migrated ("evacuated" would be more accurate, according
to the Lein article) to After arriving in the West, Ernst worked for a short while with instrument
makers near Fürth. Shortly
thereafter, the city of Cybersax.com and a few miscellaneous
newsgroup/forum posts also indicate that there was a Kohlert model
that had beveled tone holes, like the Martin and
early Couesnon horns . Considering this design is a radical departure
from the standard Kohlert designs AND because Keilwerth also produced
a similar
design right after they fled Czechoslovakia, it's possible
that either this "new" model is either a Keilwerth design or could
have been jointly developed between the two companies (there is a suggestion
that the bodies were imported from the Martin company, but that's a
bit of a stretch and there's nothing to corroborate this suggestion). 1953/54: Kohlert employed
around 100 people from 1953 to 1954, with about seventy working in
the "barracks" and another thirty working at home
[14]
. 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 [sic]. The Kohlerts also
employed four tool-makers whose job it was to make the tools and apparati
used in the factory according to the designs and needs of the instrument
makers. Thus everything was done "in house" with specially crafted
tools
[15]
. Instead of specializing on a single instrument, like the Julius Keilwerth
company, Kohlert continued to make the whole range of instruments - and,
so the profit margin kept shrinking. Realizing they couldn't continue
in this manner, Kohlert tried to cut labor costs by minimizing handwork
and started mass-producing hundreds of parts. This idea didn't work
and left Kohlert with a financial situation which required declaring
bankruptcy in 1965
[18]
. 1967: Fritz Pfannenschwarz,
an industrialist from Nordheim who was interested in music as a hobby,
came to Kohlert 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 subsequently
bought it. 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
[19]
. 1977 (Approximately): The final line of Kohlert saxophones was discontinued
and the final model name list was Popular, Regent, Star and Excelsior
[20]
. The best of these horns was and is considered
to be fairly low quality. ERRATA: * Contrary to some Internet forums and newsgroups, I see no relation between SML and Kohlert. The connection that people use between the two companies is that both used rolled tone holes and that some Kohlert models are said to have the "switchable" articulated G# key. Literally dozens of companies used rolled tone holes and Leblanc/Beaugnier/Vito used the switchable G#, too, and none of these have any connection to SML. Additionally, I can't really see a French manufacturer cooperating that closely with a German manufacturer around WWII (SML was founded in the late 1930's). * There has been a lot of discussion about the Kohlert model that
has the fancy little letter keyguards. First
of all, the letters are "VKS", not "JSK", and it probably stands for "V.
Kohlert's Söhne". The "JSK", in this interpretation, is expanded
to mean "Julius S. Keilwerth". I've
not found any documentation that even says that Julius' middle name
started with an "S" and the mark on Keilwerth horns is "JGK: The best
in the world." [1] See http://perso.club-internet.fr/cjsax/public/fsaxos.html and http://www.klaus-a-schneider.de/facharbeit/seiten/deutschland.htm
[3]
See the article "Whatever Happened to the Kohlerts",
by [4] According to most sources, the first German saxophones were not produced until 1900 or 1901 (see, for instance, http://home.t-online.de/home/mike.duchstein/da9707x5.htm) and the Kohlert model was probably the first produced. [5] The Saxophone Journal, Vintage Saxophones Revisited column; Spring 1988 (repeated in July/August 1998 column) [6] See this article, taken from an eBay ad. There are a few other sax forum and websites (such as www.worldwidesax.com) that corroborate this data. Unfortunately, no one agrees on the exact dates. [7] Ibid. Lein article. [8] The same happened to the Keilwerth company. Both were nationalized into the Amati company (which still uses the phrase "Manufactured in the tradition of the Kohlert instruments" in some of its promotional literature). [9] See www.amati.cz [10] Ibid. Lein article. [11] Ibid. Lein article. [12] This is another note that I have seen repeated in a few places on the Internet and have seen when I researched my Keilwerth article.
[13]
Corroborated in an e-mail to me from Stewart
Milton, referencing an e-mail from www.cybersax.com. This is also deduced by merely looking
at available saxophones and comparing the serial numbers. [14] Corroborated in several places, including the above e-mail. [15] Ibid. Lein article. [16] This may have also included Boosey & Hawkes - i.e., not an American wholesaler, but a British one. Kohlert did make a large amount of horns for Boosey, but also made several other stencils, including some Silvertone models sold through Sears. [17] Again, corroborated in a variety of locations. [18] Ibid. Lein article. There's also a bit in the article that mentions something like, "If the smart Kohlert brother (Max), was still alive at that time, this stupid idea wouldn't have seen the light of day." [19] Ibid. Lein article.
[20]
See http://www.klaus-a-schneider.de/facharbeit/seiten/deutschland.htm. Translation from AltaVista.com. [21] Ibid. Lein article. See also http://www.millermarketingco.com/moosmann, http://www.b-moosmann.de (multi-lingual 'site) and http://www.idrs.org/Publications/DR/DR16.1/DR16.1.Moosmann.html. |
Donate to the Vintage Saxophone Gallery Website | ||
|