the story

170 years of the Großau brass band

In September 2012, it will be 170 years since the first written documentation of the existence of a Großau music association. In a chronicle by Josef Eckenreiter, precise dates are given which were also archived in the chronicle of the Großau brass band in the cultural center of the municipality of Großau. All these documents can be viewed at the board of directors. When you have read all these documents, you can see that no major world war, not even the First, not even the Second, could prevent music from continuing to be played in Großau. There were many good conductors who made a good name for the Großau brass band throughout the region. The club reached its musical peak around 1980-1989. Unfortunately, emigration then came, which crept into the ranks of the musicians like a creeping death at the beginning of the 1980s. Every farewell was “a bit like dying”. Tears flowed, tears of farewell. What no war could destroy was now accomplished by emigration as a result of the Communist dictatorship. The first conductor to leave us was Hans Göllner in 1982, who had taught two generations how to make music. He was followed by Michael Hutter, who had also trained a new generation of musicians and a second generation that was in training. Josef Beer Senior then took over the rest of the band and continued to train the young musicians. Then came the overthrow of the Ceausescu regime in 1989 and the emigration took its course. It went on until the bitter end, until Beer Josef Senior was one of the last to follow. Now came the time of standstill, everyone was scattered all over Germany, they saw each other at reunions and reminisced about the good old days. We heard about other brass bands that played at their reunions. So it came about that we played together again for the first time in 1998 in Planegg, Munich. Now we all knew that the last hour of the Großau brass band had not yet come. There is still a future for us, we discussed in Munich that a reunion should be organized. Michael Klamer, our former 1st flugelhorn player, organized this meeting with the support of Michael Hutter in May 1999 in the Eichholzer Täle in Sindelfingen. The joy was great, we wanted to do everything from now on to continue making music together. In 2001, the next musicians’ meeting was organized and the decision to make music together again was sealed. Since then, we have had our annual Musikrobe every year on the last Saturday in March in Sindelfingen in the “Eichholzer Tale”. Everyone comes from north to south, we all look forward to seeing each other again, to “making music together”. Until 2009, music was played under the direction of Josef Beer Senior, who transferred all our sheet music and procured a lot of new sheet music, a very special thank you to him for his great work.

From 2009, our euphonist Hermann Grennerth took over the musical direction. Every time after this two-day rehearsal we all go home satisfied and look forward to the annual reunion, which our HOG organizes, once in the Federal Republic of Germany and the next year in Großau, our old homeland. We are always happy when we are at our beautiful castle, which is one of the most beautiful in Transylvania, when we can delight our compatriots with sounds from our old homeland. This festival would have no charm without the beautiful sounds of brass music. Most of our music colleagues also play in brass bands in their current hometowns, so it happens that good friends from these bands also want to play with us Großauern, which is a great honor for us and we are now a well-rehearsed team. If you look back over the last 25 years, despite the tragedy that has befallen our association over the last 170 years, then I can proudly say that we have made peace with our past and that the heart of a Transylvanian, a Großauer, a musician beats in our chest.

Board of the Großau brass music association
Andreas Wagner