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Johann Stüber

*1888 , Markneukirchen      †1976 , Den Haag

Johann Stüber was born in 1888 in Markneukirchen, among the violin makers who had settled there since the 17th century. He learned his craft from violin maker Otto Braun, a fellow resident of the town, and subsequently traveled to Berlin and Zurich before settling in Stuttgart for two years in 1912, where he worked for Eugen Gärtner.

In 1914, Johann Stüber traveled on to Amsterdam, where he worked as one of the violin makers in Karel van der Meer’s workshop until 1920. Thanks to Karel van der Meer, the somewhat dormant Dutch violin-making scene was revitalized by bringing many young, talented makers—such as Johann Stüber—to the Netherlands; Van der Meer himself built very few instruments. He encouraged his employees to develop their skills further without imposing any particular model or method on them. In 1920, Van der Meer closed his business in Amsterdam.
Workshop(s)
Stuttgart, 1912-1914
Amsterdam, 1914-1920
Den Haag, 1920-1976

From this builder

Instrument

violin bow

Johann Stüber The Hague, ± 1930
played by
Eva van Haaften
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Johann Stüber briefly returned to Eugen Gärtner that year, then worked for a short time with Max Möller in Amsterdam before finally settling in The Hague. There, he first worked for several months with Josef Vedral before going on to establish himself as an independent violin maker in that city in 1922. Johann Stüber was one of the founders of the Dutch Association of Violin and Bow Makers.

He modeled his instruments after those of Guarneri and Stradivari and finished them with orange-red or reddish-brown varnish. He won prizes for his violins in Brussels and The Hague.

Sources

Under the auspices of the Dutch Association of Violin and Bow Makers (1999), “400 Years of Violin Making in the Netherlands.”

Auteur
Jan Boekhout
Date
6 July 2023

Given on loan