The Viola da Gamba Collection of the Musikinstrumenten-Museum, Berlin
The original instrument collection of the Musikinstrumenten-Museum in Berlin was largely destroyed during the Second World War, and the museum rebuilt its holdings after 1945 through systematic acquisitions.
The viola da gamba section includes a small number of seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century instruments connected with a range of historical making centres: Königsberg (Gregorius Karpp, active late 17th century), Hamburg (Joachim Tielke, 1641–1719), Berlin (Jacob Meinertzen, c. 1665–after 1732), Nuremberg (Jeremias Würfel, c. 1655–after 1720), London (Barak Norman, c. 1651–c. 1724; Robert Cotton, fl. late 17th century), and Absam in Tyrol (Jacob Stainer, c. 1619–1683).
As Old Master paintings preserve the visible world of their time, these instruments preserve its sound; each endures as a work of rare beauty in its own right, formed by exceptional craftsmanship and the cultivated taste of its age.