Lutes and violins from Füssen in the Allgäu

During the late middle ages and the Renaissance, demand for plucked instruments grew in Italy, and this demand soon made its way to Germany. Füssen lute makers were known throughout Europe.

Englishman Thomas Hoby travelled to Venice in 1548 and reported that bulbous lutes of "consummate perfection" were produced in Füssen and exported to Venice. During this time, notes were stuck into the lute that stated who had built the instrument: “Wolfgang Wolf zue Fießen”. He belonged to one of Füssen's lute making families.

The Renaissance lute modified by Wolfgang Wolf during the Baroque period is the oldest instrument in the Museum of Füssen's collection.

This lute shell comes from the hands of Wendelin Tieffenbrucker, the son of a Füssen lute making family, who worked in Venice and Padua. The lute was made from wide shavings of sycamore and yew wood, arranged in an alternating pattern.

Plucked instrument makers still build lutes, guitars, and mandolins using traditional tools and methods today in Füssen.

In the 18th century, Füssen gained new splendour from the new Baroque building, the St. Mang monastery. Violin makers like Simpert Niggel, Johann Anton Gedler, and Joseph Benedikt Gedler all built their sought-after instruments here according to the tastes of the time.

Violins have F-shaped sound holes in their spruce top. The curved box-shaped body is made of sycamore maple. The combination of only four strings and a fretless fingerboard allows for incomparable diversity of both sound and playing style. During the Baroque period, the violin, perfected in Cremona, Italy, surpassed the lute in popularity.

A particularly special member of the violin family is the viola d'amore, which is rarely played nowadays.    This instrument, made by Paul Alletsee in 1727, has five to seven playing strings in addition to an equal number of resonant strings that only resonate  and create a particularly lovely sound.   

The skillfully carved heads of the viola d'amore's pegbox are particularly remarkable—here they look like a blindfolded cupid.

In the second half of the 18th century, instruments made in Füssen found a target market in France. And it wasn't just violins that were popular:  Füssen violin maker Franz (Francois) Fent also made guitars in his Parisian workshop, as seen on  this note.  

With the French Revolution and the resulting wars, the violin trade in France came to an abrupt end. Füssen violin makers had to supplement their income with repairs. In 1835, Joseph Alois Stoß, the last remaining violin maker, returned his trade license because he was no longer able to make a living. Füssen experienced another new boom with the construction of the Bavarian royal castle in Hohenschwangau and the establishment of a rope factory at the Lech Falls in 1861.