Shocking news: Bösendorfer burns down
NewsA huge fire broke out last night at the Bösendorfer manufactory in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.
It took four fire departments and nearly 100 firefighters two and a half hours to control the flames.
The main building is said to be a write-off, and large parts of the archive have been lost. But the production floor, which yields 300 pianos a year, has been saved.
How terrible! It’s kind of a symbolic Götterdämmerung for our times. We can only hope their archives have been digitized.
When a large part of the Weimar archives were lost to fire, I hoped that it would spur all institutions that could afford it to digitize their archives.
Feurfest safes, this is a real achival tragedy. Josef Strauss even wrote a polka about the Austrian safe manufacturer.
An incomprehensible loss! Visited there in the 80s…an awesome experience combining a sense of musical history with artistic productivity. I know they are already planning to restore and rebuild!
Dreadful news. The Bösendorfer factory also destroyed in WW11. History somehow repeating itself.
WW11? Well, I suppose we’re on the way…
Corrective statement from L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH:
The fire war in an outbuilding of the permises of Bösendorfer – factory and main building are not affected – production continues unhindered
Thank you. What about the archives?
Oh, I am So Sorry to hear this.
One wonders if effective fire suppression measures had been installed and recently maintained. It sadly reminds me of the reason behind the two disastrous fires which have all but destroyed the priceless Rennie Mackintosh Glasgow School of Art.