German Jazz Guitars: The Archtop Guitar in Post-War Central Europe

Most guitarists today think of the USA as the land of the guitar. Classical guitars come from Spain but rock, jazz and folk guitars must surely be American? They know the ’great’ names - Gibson, Epiphone, Fender, Gretsch, Martin. How many of them know that Christian Friedrich Martin was born in Markneukirchen, Germany, in 1796 and emigrated to the USA at the age of thirty-seven? The Bate Collection is a museum of musical instruments in the University of Oxford and owns a collection of guitars donated by the author. Half of them were made by German-speaking Czech craftsmen expelled from their homeland after the Second World War, resettling in Bavaria; the other half by their former neighbours in Saxony, with whom they had worked closely for three centuries but who now found themselves behind the Iron Curtain. This book offers a summary of the socio-political background and the way it led to the decline and almost the extinction of what was once the most productive centre of stringed-instrument making in the world. Lavishly illustrated with photos of all of the carefully-researched instruments in the collection, plus a unique guide to help the collector to identify the maker of his instrument.

With a degree in German, Cameron Brown, a retired publisher and former merchant bank director has also performed as a musician throughout his adult life. In retirement he moved beyond the M25 where he chairs his local history society and is treasurer of the charity Compassion in Dying.