Family History
Rainer W. Leonhardt, Violin Maker in the 4th generation
Craft violin construction
Besides craftsmanship and artistic skills are especially experience and creativity important: the only way to build unique tools that convince both phonetically and technically.
Family Leonhardt manufactures...
...in the spirit of 350 years of tradition of the Mittenwald violin making, for 95 years handcrafted stringed instruments.
It all began with the founding father Anton Dietl: He learned the violin maker craft in Schönbach (Gossengrün), opened in 1926 its first own workshop and transferred in 1968 the management to his son Wilfried Leonhardt - another son of the domestic "Handicraft Dynasty": Father Fritz Leonhardt was at that time already established as a local manufacturer of stringed instruments.
Since 1997 Rainer W. Leonhardt leads the master workshop.
Rainer Leonhardt learned the violin making in the violin Construction school in Mittenwald and laid 1982 the journeyman exam. This was followed by several journeyman years at various well known violin makers to enhance the knowledge of building, repair, optimum tonal adjustment and bow making. In 1990, he put his master's certificate in the Chamber of Crafts in Munich from a guild winner with success.