Carl Almenräder
Carl Almenräder was born on 3 October 1786 in Ronsdorf as the son of a teacher. At the age of 13, the musically talented Carl received a bassoon eaten by the worm as a present and taught himself to play auto-didactically. Before long he was able to take over the bassoon part, and later the solo part, at his father’s concerts.
In 1810, Carl Almenräder became a bassoon teacher in Cologne and even then was concerned with making improvements to the instrument. Two years later he was hired by the Frankfurt Theatre Orchestra. After participating in the campaign in France, in 1816 he was transferred to Mainz as a military musician and one year later he took a position at the Mainz Municipal Theatre and in the main management at the wind instrument office of Mainz music publisher Schott.
When he returned to Cologne in 1820, Carl Almenräder found that there were few instruments there that met his requirements. Therefore, he opened his own workshop to build high-quality flutes and clarinets. In 1822, he left Cologne again to accept the position of the first bassoonist in the court orchestra of the Duke of Nassau. Again he took over the management of the bassoon factory at Schott in Mainz, where he had built bassoons according to his own ideas and concepts.
At Schott, Carl Almenräder met Johann Adam Heckel for the first time. He was enthusiastic about his craftsman potential and his understanding of acoustics. So it came, in 1831, to the foundation of the joint company J. A. Heckel and Carl Almenräder bassoon factory. In 1838, Carl Almenräder left the joint company.
He died on 14 September 1843 in Biebrich.