Alte ES Klarinette erstanden! Unbekannter Hersteller

[Baracus112]

Hallo,
ich habe eine alte ES Klarinette mit deutschem Griffsystem erstanden,
und die Herstellergravur ist schon etwas abgerieben aber es soll wohl
GEMOG heisen!
Kann mir jemand etwas zu diesem Hersteller erzählen?

Vielen Dank schon mal im Voraus.

Schöne Grüsse aus Bayern
Mike

[intune]

gebrüder mönnig

GEBRÜDER MÖNNIG before 1945
Although there have been Mönnigs in the Vogtland
since 1633, the first family member to make
woodwind instruments was Johann Karl Friedrich
Mönnig (1789-1837); he was inducted into the
Neukirchener Guild of Wind Instrument Makers in
1815. His oldest son and two grandsons followed in
the family tradition of woodwind instrument making
as well. The oldest grandson, Wilhelm August Mönnig
(1834-1894), had two sons who, after completing their
apprenticeships as instrument makers, moved to
Leipzig and established the well-known firm of Otto
Mönnig and Moritz Max Mönnig. The younger
grandson, Heinrich Wilhelm Mönnig (1852-1934), is
the father of the generation best known to the world
of bassoon playing as the Moennig Brothers
(Gebrüder Mönnig).
Their father, Heinrich Wilhelm Mönnig, apparently
learned his craft in the workshop of his older brother
as their father died a few months after his birth. He
became a master craftsman in woodwind instrument
making in 1875. In 1896 he built a restaurant in
Markneukirchen and, in the cellar, a workshop for
woodwind instrument production. He and several
apprentices and journeymen produced instruments
there until 1909; two of his sons completed their
apprenticeships in his shop, Wilhelm Hans Mönnig
(1878-1942) and Otto Fritz Mönnig (1881-1969).
In 1906 Hans and Fritz officially took over their
father’s business, and in 1907 they built a large
residence and workshop in the Wernitzgrüner street,
where they are still located today. They registered
their company as Gebrüder Mönnig and, along with
six journeymen and two apprentices, began
producing clarinets and flutes. The two brothers had
both achieved master craftsmen status, and each had
two sons who would later join the firm. Even though
the factory had been built during a period of high
inflation, they had good connections with the export
market for selling their instruments, so the effect on
them was less severe than on some other instrument
makers. During WW I, however, things did come to a
standstill because both owners were called to
military service.
After the war the older sons of each owner entered
the firm as an apprentice and in 1920 the younger
sons as well. All four of the boys had begun music
lessons in school when they were ten years old,
playing variously clarinet, flute, oboe and bassoon
and later were members of the orchestra in
Markneukirchen. In 1920 the brothers constructed an
adjoining building with an even larger workshop; and,
with the addition of another building in 1924, the size
of the building that they still occupy today was
achieved.
In 1922 nineteen-year-old Horst (oldest son of Fritz)
Mönnig went to the U.S. to find out what the
competition was like and to better his English. He had
originally planned to stay only one year, but he liked
it so well that he eventually settled in Los Angeles. He
made flutes for various companies, including Bettony
and Haynes. Hans (oldest son of Hans) Mönnig followed
in 1923, making clarinets in Providence and Boston
before finally settling in Philadelphia, where he maintained his own workshop from 1931-1983. He
(Hans Moennig) is considered one of the best woodwind
repair technicians of all time. The two younger
sons of the Mönnig Brothers, Willy (son of Fritz) and
Albert (son of Hans) had begun apprenticeships in
the family firm in 1920. In 1925/26 they went to the
famous firm of Heckel in Biebrich 1925/26 to refine
their craft. Shortly before they left for Biebrich, the
building of oboes had begun in the family firm. When
they returned to Markneukirchen, the building of
bassoons began.
By the end of the twenties the firm Gebrüder
Mönnig was producing the complete range of
woodwind instruments, including alto and bass
clarinet, contrabassoon, oboe d’amore, English
horn, alto and bass flute; even saxophone
production had begun in 1927. At this point, the two
brothers and their sons each assumed
responsibility for the production of specific
instruments: Hans was responsible for flutes, Fritz
for clarinets, Albert for oboes and Willy for
bassoons and saxophones.
Business contacts in the U.S. were responsible for
the increasing prosperity the firm enjoyed at this
time. The most important initial contact was a
brother of Hans and Fritz, William, who had
emigrated to the U.S. much earlier and had become a
well-known violin maker in Philadelphia. In 1926 they
were visited by the Simsons of the Cleveland firm of
Simson and Fey. This company wanted to import
their instruments. They were granted exclusive rights
to market instruments under the name “Moennig
Bros. Artist-Modell,” although Horst and Hans Mönnig
still had the special privilege of importing directly
from their fathers’ firm. They contracted yearly for
large numbers of instruments, and these yearly
contracts were renewed through 1939. Even though
Simson had died in 1935, two employees carried on
and the company name was changed to Sherl and
Roth. Heinrich Roth, who had been born in
Markneukirchen, continued renewing the yearly
contracts. Because of these large, on-going orders,
the firm had to be expanded again and new tools had
to be built. Whereas about forty people had been
employed in 1920, the end of the decade saw seventy
employees, including three in-house tool makers and
another twenty people doing hand assembly work in
their homes.
In the twenties and thirties, American players were
switching from the Albert system to the Boehm
system, so a special point was made in the advertising
for the flutes and clarinets that these were
“Boehm” system instruments. Responding to
requests from American customers, the Mönnigs also
made thousands of metal clarinets and, from 1932 on,
metal oboes. The instruments were either stamped “Gebrüder Mönnig Markneukirchen” or “Moennig
Bros Artist Instruments.”
In 1936 a representative of the Röhm & Haas
company in Darmstadt suggested they try making
instruments from the new synthetic material
plexiglas. The Mönnig brothers wanted to be the first
to try this and made a piccolo and a flute. Then, in
preparation for the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris, they
also made an oboe, a complete set of clarinets and a
bassoon. All of these instruments were awarded a
“grand prix.” Other manufacturers quickly followed in
their footsteps, including the Gustav Mollenhauer
company in Kassel. These instruments could
withstand a temperature of ±70° C. They were
destined to be used in the military bands in Africa,
and their manufacture ended during the early war
years. These plexiglas instruments are probably the
forerunners of the plastic instruments made in the
U.S. (There is a set on loan from the Mönnig family
displayed in the musical instrument museum in
Markneukirchen.)
The beginning of the second world war meant that
they had fewer employees and obtaining materials
was more difficult, so production was cut back. Fritz
Mönnig kept the production going with older
employees that had not been called to military
service. His brother Hans died in 1942 and thus the
next generation, Albert and Willy, became partners in
the company. Albert Mönnig was killed in action in
1942, so the firm was left in the hands of one of the
original Mönnig brothers, Fritz, and his son Willy.


entnommen :
VOLUME 22 • NO. 2
The IDRS Journal Issue, 1999

[Dr. Enrico Weller]

For German readers:

http://www.moennig-adler.de/nav_f.htm

(Geschichte/Gebrüder Mönnig)

Guten Abend
E. Weller

[intune]

die deutsche seite lässt sich derzeit nicht aufrufen, zumindest bei mir.

gruss Ralph

[Baracus112]

Hallo,
als erste möchte ich mich für die Antworten recht herzlich bedanken!
Es hatt mich schon ein ganzes Stück weiter gebracht.

Wer kann mir bitte sagen wie alt das gute Stück ist?

Anbei noch ein paar weitere Details und Bilder.
Die Klappen sind zum gesteckt und nicht geschraubt.
Die SN lautet 25705.

Danke für die Hilfe!

[Dr. Enrico Weller]

Hallo Mike,

zu Seriennummern der Mönnig-Klarinetten gab es hier im Forum schon öfter einmal eine Anfrage. Sie finden meine Antwort unter http://museum-markneukirchen.de/forum/v ... f=13&t=485

Oder hier der in Frage kommende Auszug:

Von 1924 (Einführung der Seriennummerierung) bis 1968 (Einstellung der Klarinettenproduktion bei Mönnig) wurden ca. 72000 Klarinetten hergestellt, wobei für die 1920er und 1930er Jahre größere Jahresproduktionen anzunehmen sind als nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg (1931 feierte man bereits das Jubiläum der 20.000. Klarinette). Falls Ihr Instrument außer dem Mönnig-Signum noch weitere Angaben enthält (Germany, Soviet Zone, GDR), dann könnte das zur genaueren Datierung sicherlich noch beitragen. Weitere Angaben zur Geschichte der Firma Mönnig werden Sie schon unter www.moennig-adler.de gefunden haben.

Nachtrag dazu: Ich denke, dass man Ende der 1930er Jahre schon bei Sr.-Nr. 40.000 angelangt war.

Eine genauere Eingrenzung der Herstellungszeit ist zzt. nicht möglich. Aber die von Ihnen beschriebene einfache Bauweise passt dorthin.

Viele Grüße
Enrico Weller

[Baracus112]

Hallo Enrico,

herzlichen Dank für die Infos!

Ich werde das gute Stück mal generalüberholen und dann mal
schauen was men ihr so entlocken kann.

Viele Grüße

Mike Kühnel

[Baracus112]

Hallo,
die Karinette ist nun Generalüberholt und spielklar.
Sie klingt immer noch ganz gut, jetzt muss ich mal
schauen ob die Intonation zu den heutigen Instrumenten
passt.
PS: Es freut mich aber jetzt schon das das Instrument
nicht mehr "schweigen" muss.

Schöne Grüsse aus Bayrisch Schwaben