Re: Re: Re: Who is Bretterbutzel?


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Posted by Klaus on July 24, 2001 at 05:16:54:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Who is Bretterbutzel? posted by Art on July 23, 2001 at 22:26:23:

With al due respect: it will not fit into common patterns, if the customer was from Eastern Europe. Especially not if the story dates some years back. Western currencies were, and to some degree still are, a major problem for these countries.

If the investor was a Westener, the story will be much more likely.

It might be known, that I am a Dane, who spent his first 11 years in Germany. My father was a teacher/headmaster of schools for the Danish minority there. Through the Danish newspaper of the minority I for many years followed the cultural life of the border area.

Flensborg (yes, that is the proper spelling) even after WWII had a brass instruments manufacturer, Schmidt (?). But as most smaller makers he could not survive the competition from the mass producers.

So from having a qualified producing and repairing facility Flensborg went to nothing. I do not remember the exact year, when I read a newspaper feature on a new music store in Flensborg. It could have between 1970 and 1980.

That store got a lot of requests on repairs of brass and WW instruments, which they could not honour themselves. The solution was to collect enough repairs to fill the van of the store owner. And then bring the instruments to a qualified shop in Hungary.

At the time of the newspaper feature that business blossomed so much, that the van took the Hungary trip in intervals of one or two weeks. With full loads both ways: defects down, effects up.

One should not underestimate the skills of Eastern European craftsmen. Tools and processes might be outdated, but no rotary tuba of today would be thinkable without the "original" Cerveny.

The small shop brass makers have had a revival throughout Germany through the last decade or two. The reason is the revival of the German rotary trumpet in the innumerous German symphonies.

Klaus


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