Wilhelm Brückner

German luthier Wilhelm Brückner was born in the city of Erfurt on 30 September 1932 into a family of violin makers. His grandfather (who had the same name, and who was from a traditional violin making dynasty) had founded the company in 1897.

Wilhelm Brückner jr initially wanted to become a forester, but at fifteen he became apprenticed to master violin maker Willi Dölling in Markneukirchen, and then worked for  master violinmaker Willi Lindörfer in Weimar. Brückner received his master craftsman's certificate in 1956 and took over the family company in 1960, continuing to work in his grandfather's workshop, and initially involved mostly with restorations and repairs. He became a specialist in the building of violas, and became well known for this in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) and the Eastern block. He won the gold medal in the 1972 Henryk Wieniawski violin-making competition.

There were political difficulties in having connections with the West at this time, and this caused problems for freelance luthiers in the DDR, mostly with obtaining materials. In 1978 Brückner created and became first deputy chairman of the DDR's 'specialist group of violin makers'.

With German viola player Alfred Lipka, Brückner developed his own model of viola, which became known as the 'wide-arsed Brückner viola', known for its broad lower part and 'black' sound. Kurt Masur thought that Brückner's instruments were '... so valuable that they could be compared with old Italians'.

In spite of the politics at the time, Brückner managed to teach Swedish violin makers and to take part in competitions in the West: the 1982 'Antonius Stradivari' violin-making competition in Cremona and the 1983 Louis Spohr violin-making competition in Kassel.

His customers included Hans-Christian Bartel, Hatto Beyerle, Oleg Kagan, Alfred Lipka, Tatjana Masurenko, Nils Mönkemeyer, Sophia Reuter, André Rieu and Matthias Sannemüller.

Wilhelm Brückner (1932-2025)
Wilhelm Brückner (1932-2025)

 

He continued to work, later, from 1981, together with his daughter, Ruth Brückner, finally announcing his retirement on his ninetieth birthday.

Wilhelm Brückner died on 2 January 2025, aged ninety-two.

There's further information about Brückner and his work at geigenbau-brueckner.de