Glier in Untersachsenberg

In 1799 the brass-windhorn instrumentmaker Johann Gottlieb Glier [see remarks below] of Markneukirchen moves to Untersachsenberg (Klingenthal). It is assumed, that he was the lone maker of metal windhorns in Klingenthal for almost two decades. His sons learnt the craft from him and traded the windhorns of the fathers workshop on their sales trips to Prussia and Mecklenburg. Due to the chronicler Wolf [3; page 48] the workshop of Glier "... produced all kinds of this instruments and all brass instrumentmakers of that time had their training there". Out of this beginning the handicraft production of metall windinstruments developed and spreaded throughout the entire region of Klingenthal. This production always stood in the shadows of the Markneukirchen and Graslitz production. The industrial production in Klingenthal ended when the branch of the Vogtlaendischen Musikinstrumentenfabrik GmbH moved to Markneukirchen in 1994.

Whether Gliers are living in Cincinnati (Ohio), Warsaw or Moscow, they all have Johann Gottlieb Glier as their common ancestor.

Johann Gottlieb's sons also went on journeys to Prussia and Mecklenburg and they already prepared the trade for the instruments produced by the fathers workshop. After the death of the windhornmaker and musical instrumenttrader in 1840 his sons took over the tradition.

Carl Friedrich Glier, a son of Johann Gottlieb Glier, was a windhorn maker, too, but he mainly traded with music instruments. He did his trade by means of a wheelbarrow and he traveled up to Stralsund at the Baltic Sea.. He was so well known in northern Germany that when his son Karl Robert, who later went to Cincinnati, undertook the journey 1872 with the known wheelbarrow he was questioned in Mecklenburg "Did the old man die?" without beeing asked who he was. Even his sons learnt the make of windhorns.

Poppa-Haus in Untersachsenberg

Carl Friedrich Glier owned a house in Untersachsenberg, where later the music teacher Max Poppa lived (see left picture). Poppa was a well known person in Klingenthal. Carl Friedrich was married twice. The first marriage was with Christine Friederike Körner. They had a son, Ernst Moritz Glier, who later emmigrated over Warsaw to Kiev and started the russian branch of the family Glier. Karl Robert, the son of the second marriage started the american branch. Karl Robert first went to Mecklenburg in 1872 but shortly after emmigrated to the United States made a name as a violin maker.

Friedrich Wilhelm is a brother of Carl Friedrich and learnt like all his brothers the making of windhorns with his father Johann Gottlieb Glier (* 1777 + 1840). Friedrich Wilhelm left Untersachsenberg and the Vogtland, went to Warsaw and founded the polish branch of the family.

There still are descendants of the Untersachsenberg Glier family in the USA, in Russia and Poland. In South-America, mainly in Brasil. there are descendants of Carl Friedrich Glier, too. Two sons, Carl Wilhelm and Friedrich Wilhelm, also emmigrated into the south of Brasil to Rio Grande do Sul. While Wilhelm Glier has many descendants, there is nothing known about Carl Glier and possible descendants.
The common ground for all of them, was their love to music.