Richard Paulus Zither
Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2014 11:09 am
Yesterday I looked into an email received about someone seeking further information on a zither passed down to them from their great-grandparents who had moved to the US from Germany in the 20's :
The big question was, who was Richard Paulus? I'd never heard of him before, but a bit of searching on the internet led me to the following conclusions:
... a look at some online German census records has revealed a few more tidbits that may be of interest. It appears that there really was a Richard Paulus who was born on December 11, 1884 to a string maker (probably musical instrument strings) also named Richard Paulus, in Markneukirchen Saxony, Germany. At age 15, from 1899-1903 he was apprenticed to Theodor Scherzer (b. 1851, d. 1910) and then worked as an assistant for Eugen Gartner (b. 1864, d. 1944), possibly in Leipzig, for company belonging to Julius Heinrich Zimmermann (b. 1851, d. ?) and Phillip Keller (b. 1868, d. ?) both of whom were apparently quality violin makers. On the 15th of March, 1909, R. Paulus established his own workshop in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he specialized in making violins and restoring stringed instruments. I was at first inclined to think that maybe the zither in question was simply restored by him as he seems to specialize mainly in violins, but looking further online I found an image of a lute that he had restored and the label he left on it is much different than the label the zither bears. (See image)
So this leads me to believe he - or someone in his company - probably did indeed make the zither. I, in fact, own a zither that bears a violin company label and have been told by the person who sold it to me that often students of violin makers (doubtless only those in Germanic areas, however) will be assigned to construct a few zithers as a part of their education. Perhaps this is the case in this instance. There also seems to be more than one Paulus to have come from Markneukirchen around that time. Another violin maker named Augustus Paulus, and perhaps another zither maker named Wilhelm Paulus.
Below I am including in the original German text the reference I gleaned most of my information from, in case you would like to draw your own translation from it. It is an excerpt from a violin and lute maker census, originally published sometime before 1945.
DRUCK DER SPAMERSCHEN BUCHDRUCKEREI IN LEIPZIG
COPYRIGHT 1921 BY FRANKFURTER VERLAGS- ANSTALT A.-G. IN FRANKFURT A.M.
ALPHABETISCHES VERZEICHNIS
DER GEIGEN- UND LAUTENMACHER
Paulus, Richard. — Freiburg i. Br.
Geb. 11. Dezember 1884 in Markneukirchen als Sohn
des Saitenmachers Richard P. Von 1899—1903 lernte
er bei Theodor Scherzer, arbeitete dann als Gehilfe
bei Eugen Gartner, bei der Firma Jul. H. Zimmermann
und bei Phil. Keller und machte sich am 15. Marz
1909 in Freiburg selbstandig. Er befaBt sich sowohl
mit dem Neubau als auch mit der Wiederherstellung
alter Geigen.
Geigenzettel : Richard Paulus, Geigenbauer / Kunst-
Reparaturwerkstatte / Freiburg Baden, Rotteckstr. 5 /
Verfertigt im ... 19 . . No. . . . (gedruckt).
Heidi
The big question was, who was Richard Paulus? I'd never heard of him before, but a bit of searching on the internet led me to the following conclusions:
... a look at some online German census records has revealed a few more tidbits that may be of interest. It appears that there really was a Richard Paulus who was born on December 11, 1884 to a string maker (probably musical instrument strings) also named Richard Paulus, in Markneukirchen Saxony, Germany. At age 15, from 1899-1903 he was apprenticed to Theodor Scherzer (b. 1851, d. 1910) and then worked as an assistant for Eugen Gartner (b. 1864, d. 1944), possibly in Leipzig, for company belonging to Julius Heinrich Zimmermann (b. 1851, d. ?) and Phillip Keller (b. 1868, d. ?) both of whom were apparently quality violin makers. On the 15th of March, 1909, R. Paulus established his own workshop in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he specialized in making violins and restoring stringed instruments. I was at first inclined to think that maybe the zither in question was simply restored by him as he seems to specialize mainly in violins, but looking further online I found an image of a lute that he had restored and the label he left on it is much different than the label the zither bears. (See image)
So this leads me to believe he - or someone in his company - probably did indeed make the zither. I, in fact, own a zither that bears a violin company label and have been told by the person who sold it to me that often students of violin makers (doubtless only those in Germanic areas, however) will be assigned to construct a few zithers as a part of their education. Perhaps this is the case in this instance. There also seems to be more than one Paulus to have come from Markneukirchen around that time. Another violin maker named Augustus Paulus, and perhaps another zither maker named Wilhelm Paulus.
Below I am including in the original German text the reference I gleaned most of my information from, in case you would like to draw your own translation from it. It is an excerpt from a violin and lute maker census, originally published sometime before 1945.
DRUCK DER SPAMERSCHEN BUCHDRUCKEREI IN LEIPZIG
COPYRIGHT 1921 BY FRANKFURTER VERLAGS- ANSTALT A.-G. IN FRANKFURT A.M.
ALPHABETISCHES VERZEICHNIS
DER GEIGEN- UND LAUTENMACHER
Paulus, Richard. — Freiburg i. Br.
Geb. 11. Dezember 1884 in Markneukirchen als Sohn
des Saitenmachers Richard P. Von 1899—1903 lernte
er bei Theodor Scherzer, arbeitete dann als Gehilfe
bei Eugen Gartner, bei der Firma Jul. H. Zimmermann
und bei Phil. Keller und machte sich am 15. Marz
1909 in Freiburg selbstandig. Er befaBt sich sowohl
mit dem Neubau als auch mit der Wiederherstellung
alter Geigen.
Geigenzettel : Richard Paulus, Geigenbauer / Kunst-
Reparaturwerkstatte / Freiburg Baden, Rotteckstr. 5 /
Verfertigt im ... 19 . . No. . . . (gedruckt).
Heidi