Struggle for survival on the Lech
As early as 1562, the lute and violin makers of Füssen founded the first guild to protect their profession. Strict guild rules were intended to make it difficult to set up new workshops, for the small town on the Lech already had 20 workshops for every 2,000 inhabitants.
From ‘Topographiae Sveviae’ by Matthäus Merian, 1656. (Source: Allgäu erleben (Experience Allgäu)
Although Füssen had excellent trade relations with northern Italy due to its geographical location on the old Roman trade route Via Claudia Augusta, poverty, war and plague forced many instrument makers to leave their homelands in the following decades. They sought their fortunes in other countries and cities, such as Venice, Padua, Brescia, Bologna, Rome, Naples, Lyon, Paris, London… the list of cities where instrument makers from Füssen have settled is long. They all contributed to the emergence of new centres of violin making. It is therefore not entirely surprising that the stylistic features of southern German violin making are reflected in many schools.