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Bausch, Ludwig Christian August (bow maker)

Contemporaries of Ludwig Christian August Bausch referred to him as the “German Tourte.” Famous violinists of the 19th century such as Joseph Joachim and August Wilhelmj had a stated preference for Bausch bows, and not simply as an expression of patriotism. They even chose Bausch’s work over that of his role model, François Xavier Tourte, who had paved the way to modern bow making. The Bausch name came to stand not only for a distinctive school of German bows; it also quickly advanced the master’s stamp to a seal of quality which was ultimately placed on countless bows well into the 20th century.

Ludwig Bausch was born on 15 January 1805 in Naumburg, Germany and died in Leipzig on 26 May 1871. His biography is the straightforward story of a luthier from central Germany who deserves far more than the obscurity he has fallen into, given the esteem he attained in the European world of instrument making. From 1818 to 1822, Bausch completed his apprenticeship under the court instrument maker Johann Benjamin Fritzsche in Dresden, where he settled in 1825 after completing his service as a journeyman. In keeping with how craftsmen were trained in his day, he began working as a violin and lute maker. In 1828 he moved to Dessau, where his older son Karl Friedrich Ludwig Bausch was born in 1829 and he himself was named a court-appointed instrument maker by no later than 1838.

Around 1836, Bausch came into contact with Louis Spohr, who is said to have given him important inspiration in terms of developing his own model of a bow that was patterned after the work of Tourte. It is not known how Bausch became the excellent bow maker he was, how he achieved his most important professional successes, or how he made a name for himself in history. What is known, however, is that he began pursuing bow making in earnest during his time in Dessau. In 1839, when Bausch moved to Leipzig, bows became his primary focus alongside repairing stringed instruments. His second son, Otto Julius Bausch, was born there in 1841. Other than a brief intermezzo as an instrument maker at the court of Nassau in Wiesbaden from 1861 to 1863, Bausch remained in Leipzig until his death.

In 1840, Bausch sen. won a silver medal at the Saxonian industrial exposition because of the highly esteemed quality of his work. His sons went on to follow in their father’s footsteps as talented and well-trained luthiers themselves: Ludwig jun. completed part of his training in New York. Otto Bausch studied under Jean Vauchel and expanded his father’s business into the Ludwig Bausch und Sohn company in 1860, producing not only bows but also stringed instruments. After the premature deaths of Bausch’s sons – Ludwig died in 1871 and Otto in 1875 – the business passed to Adolf Wilhelm Eduard Paulus, a long-time Bausch employee, and later to his son, Adolf jun. until 1908.

Despite some of the differences which distinguish Ludwig Christian August Bausch’s reinforced and longer bow model from Tourte’s epoch-defining work, the real reason the Leipzig artisan made history was that he helped Tourte’s modern bow-making art break through in Germany. It is not known how Bausch achieved his exceptional mastery in bows, but as a worthy successor to Tourte, he can certainly be compared to the great Jean Baptiste Vuillaume in Paris, who unlocked the mystery of the Tourte bow by means of complicated technical and mathematical analysis. Bausch’s legacy may ultimately have been tarnished because of the many lesser-quality bows which generated attention due of the Bausch seal. Nevertheless, to this day, genuine Bausch bows enjoy the great appreciation among aficionados that they deserve.

Author:

Nils-Christian Engel ist begeisterter Amateur-Cellist

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