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It's the last week of February and I'm in a "Mom &
Pop" grocery store in Biebrich am Rhein. The proprietors
shake their heads, have a whispered consultation. Another "verruckter
Amerikaner." Maybe the Henkel Fabrik? Certainly not, my recollection
of the Henkel company is that they are (in) famous for manufacturing
the hated Stuka bomber of WWII. Never heard of it. I can't find
the address, but as my fifty year old recollection of German I
and II begins to desert me, I remember enough to ask for a telephone
book. Sure enough, there it is on Stettiner Strasse. They tell
me it is right around the corner. I mention that Heckel makes
the most famous bassoons in the world. A shrug and a look of polite
amusement. Never heard of it and couldn't care less.
The Heckel factory is in an old house not much larger than my
own. It is set back from the street and, except for a modest sign
on the front lawn looks much like any other house. Unfortunately,
it is just noon when I get there so everybody is just leaving
for lunch. Frau Reiter greets me cordially since I have written
and telephoned in advance. She introduces me to Herr Gebhardt
who speaks no English. Hers is excellent.
She offers me a cup of tea and a chocolate as well as her son
to act as a guide. No factory tour, but you can look in and see
people working on bassoons in various stages of completion. Meanwhile,
I can listen to one of the local bassoonists trying out a bocal.
He's good, running all over the instrument and including part
of the Weber Concerto. Heckel does not sell directly, but does
sell bocals.
Her son takes me upstairs where they have a museum. The wall is
virtually wainscoted with bassoons! In addition, there are several
other instruments, oboes, bass oboes, a Heckelphone, flutes, one
instrument that neither of us can identify. Herr Reiter shows
me a bassoon made of palisander, nice but heavy. Another made
of boxwood, which seems more reasonable. Nice weight. I remember
that Langwill wrote that bassoons were made of rosewood or maple,
but the only rosewood bassoon I ever saw was the first one I owned,
a horrible bundle of sticks made by Duval of Paris. It was a Heckel
system, but also it was the only bassoon I ever saw with a closed
Bb key. However, we agree that since maple is so satisfactory
and so much has gone into learning the curing and subsequent treatment,
there is little point to experimenting with other woods.
The most impressive thing about the Heckel factory is that it
is a cottage industry. They make fewer than 100 bassoons a year
and there are less than two dozen workers in the whole place.
Three years of apprenticeship precedes two more years of journeyman
training before one becomes a master instrument maker. The family
tradition is very strong. The factory was begun by Johann Adam
Heckel (1812-1877) in 1831 when, if my arithmetic isn't wrong,
he was only nineteen years old. (It's interesting to note that
the Mollenhauer factory was started in 1822 and has also persisted
for over one and a half centuries.) The Heckel factory was passed
on to Wilhelm (1856-1909), Wilhelm H. (1879-1952),
August (1880-1914) Franz Groffy, Wilhelm H.'s son-in-law, (1896-1972)
and finally to Adolph Gebhard, the son-in-law of Franz Groffy.
Gisela Gebhard (1926-1990) and Edith Reiter are daughters of Franz
Groffy.
After Herr Gebhard and Frau Reiter returned from lunch we chatted
a bit and I insisted on playing something for them on the "microbassoon,"
as I sometimes call the pendant ocarina. They listened politely,
I thought with an air of wry amusement. Then I left.
A visit to the factory is not too easy to accomplish but well
worth the trouble. Although you will be told that everybody in
Germany speaks English, I can assure you only that everybody in
Germany speaks GERMAN! Biebrich am Rhein is a tiny obscure suburb
of Wiesbaden; does not have its own telephone listings and is
not shown on the map. If you are not careful, you will be directed
to Bieberach which is in south Wurtemburg about 160 miles from
where you want to be. If, as I did, you take the train from Cologne
to Wiesbaden, you will travel a very picturesque section of the
Rhine complete with old castles and cultivated fields. Train service
is efficient but can be tricky. In order to get back, I had to
first take the train to Mainz. Frau Reiter and Herr Gebhard are
cordial but busy and preoccupied with business. Any visit MUST
be arranged for in advance.
Harold Kohn has studied bassoon with David Van Vactor and performed
in Knoxville, Tenn., under Lamar Springfield and with the ASOL
orchestra under Richard Lert. He resides in Columbus, Ohio.