Friedrich Ehrbar

Biography

Friedrich Ehrbar was born on April 26, 1827, in Hanover. When he was two years old, a cholera epidemic took his father, mother and sister within one week, and his childhood was spent in a home for orphans. Showing musical and mechanical talent by making guitars as a schoolboy, he was apprenticed to organ builder Frederici of Hanover, serving seven years. In 1848 he set out for Vienna, meeting fellow piano maker Henry Steinweg at Hanover along the way and forming a lasting friendship. In Vienna he found employment with the celebrated master Seuffert, who released him from his student obligations after only nine months due to his rapid progress, and in 1854 entrusted him with producing six pianos for the 1855 Munich exposition, all of which sold and won a prize medal. Seuffert died in 1855; Ehrbar managed the business until acquiring ownership in 1857. He won first prizes at the London (1862) and Paris (1867) World's Fairs, was honored with decorations and the title of purveyor to the Austrian court, served as a juror at the 1873 Vienna Exposition, was among the first Vienna makers to adopt the full iron frame, and erected the Saal Ehrbar concert hall in 1877. He retired on January 1, 1898, and died near Vienna on February 25, 1905, in his seventy-eighth year, succeeded by his son of the same name. Friedrich Ehrbar is named as one of the directors of the Vienna piano and organ makers' association, formed in 1905 to pursue aims similar to the Paris Chambre Syndicale. No further biographical information is given in this text.

Highlights

• Orphaned by cholera at age two and raised in an orphans' home before apprenticing under organ builder Frederici of Hanover
• Trained under Vienna master Seuffert, won a prize medal at the 1855 Munich exposition, and took over Seuffert's business in 1857
• Won first prizes at the London (1862) and Paris (1867) World's Fairs, was honored by the Austrian Emperor, and built the Saal Ehrbar concert hall in 1877
• Named as one of the directors of the Vienna piano and organ makers' association, organized in 1905

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), pp. 220, 222, 407.

Public domain.