Index to carillons and chimes by Rincker
The Rincker foundry of Germany has provided bells for various carillons and chimes throughout the world. See the bottom of this page for contact information and additional notes. There was also a Rincker foundry in America for a few years; a brief history of that foundry can also be found below.For an explanation of what this index contains (and does NOT contain), and of the additional details on each entry, see the Bellfoundry Indexes Advice.
Rincker, Sinn, Germany
AALEN - NR : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C non-trad Neues Rathaus BAD BERLEBURG : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C chime (unknown) BOEBLINGEN : GERMANY-BRD 1??? C non-trad Rathaus ERBACH/ODENWALD : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C non-trad Rathausturm FRANKFURT-AM-MAIN - B : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C peal Bethlehemkirche GRIESHEIM : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C non-trad Melanchthonkirche GUADALAJARA : MEXICO 1??? C non-trad Cathedral GUETERSLOH : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C non-trad Rathausfassade HILCHENBACH : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C chime Sparkasse KOELN - B : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C peal (unknown) LEMGO : GERMANY-BRD 193? F chime St.Nicolaikirche LEMGO : GERMANY-BRD 19?? E chime St.Nicolaikirche MEXICO CITY - U : MEXICO 19?? C non-trad (unknown) MOELLN : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C non-trad Wohnstift Augustinum OSNABRUECK : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C chime Marienkirche RUEDESHEIM : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C chime (unknown) SIEGEN : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C non-trad Das Untere Schloss (Dicke Turm) SINN/DILLKREIS - 1 : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C non-trad Traveling Carillon Fa.Rincker SINN/DILLKREIS - 2 : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C non-trad Fa.Rincker TOKYO - N : JAPAN 1??? C non-trad Nihombasji (or Nihonbashi) Building VALDIVIA : CHILE 19?? C chime (unknown) WOCKLUM : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C chime (unknown) WORMS : GERMANY-BRD 19?? C non-trad Dreifaltigkeitskirche (Trinity Church) LEMGO : GERMANY-BRD 1948 I chime St.Nicolaikirche DARMSTADT : GERMANY-BRD 1951 F chime Rezidenzschloss DARMSTADT : GERMANY-BRD 1955 I non-trad Rezidenzschloss WOLFSBURG : GERMANY-BRD 1958 C non-trad Rathausturmfassade (northwest) BERLIN - KW : GERMANY-BRD 1959 C chime Altes Glockenturm Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche HOEXTER : GERMANY-BRD 1959 C non-trad Historisches Rathaus Berlin : Germany 1961 - great Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church HOLZMINDEN : GERMANY-BRD 1961 C non-trad Stadthaus (or) Haus den Jugend BIELEFELD : GERMANY-BRD 1963 C non-trad Alte Nicolaikirche AARHUS : DENMARK - J 1964 I trad Rådhus (Town Hall) DUESSELDORF - EMK : GERMANY-BRD 1964 E non-trad Evangelische Melancthon-Kirchengemeinde LILIENTHAL : GERMANY-BRD 1966 C non-trad Evangel. Hospital GOETTINGEN - JK : GERMANY-BRD 1968 F chime Jacobikirche PADERBORN - KK : GERMANY-BRD 1969 C non-trad Kaufhaus Klingenthal GELDERN : GERMANY-BRD 1970 C non-trad Heilig-geist-kirche GOETTINGEN - JK : GERMANY-BRD 1973 I chime Jacobikirche DARMSTADT : GERMANY-BRD 1981 E non-trad Rezidenzschloss ROTENBURG : GERMANY 1992 C chime Rotenburger Glockenspiel Rathaus COQUIMBO : CHILE 1999 C peal Cruz del Tercer Milenio GOETTINGEN - JK : GERMANY-BRD 2008 I chime Jacobikirche GOETTINGEN - JK : GERMANY-BRD 2014 E chime Jacobikirche LUEBECK - 1 : GERMANY-BRD 2019 E South tower St.Mary's Church (Marienkirche)
H.W.Rincker, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Chicago : USA - IL 1854 - [great] Central fire bell Courthouse
Contact:
Rincker Glocken- und Kunstgiesserei Wetzlarer Strasse 13 D-35764 Sinn Germany Tel: (0 27 72) 94 06-0 Fax: (0 27 72) 94 06-40 E: info@rincker.de
- Site locator map
City locator maps and gazetteer page
The foundry's name translates to "Rincker Bells- and Art-foundry". Its history reaches back to 1590, making it Europe's oldest family-owned bellfoundry. For most of that time, it has been a major source of bells in Germany and German-speaking predecessor states, but only occasionally has it exported bells elsewhere. The company Website is entirely in German.
From 1993 to 2012, the foundry had a subsidiary named Lauchhammer in northeastern Germany. Steel bells were cast there.
Rinckers in America:
One of the bellfounders from this family, Heinrich Wilhelm (Henry) Rincker, emigrated to the USA and set up a bell and brass foundry in Chicago, Illinois. It was not a branch of the family foundry, but an independent operation.
H.W.Rincker was born in 1818, the first of eight children of Germanic bellfounder Phillip Rincker. When he came to this country in 1846, he was accompanied by his wife and three young children; another child was born to them in Chicago. Three of his brothers also emigrated to the USA, although one of them later returned to his homeland and eventually took over the family bellfoundry there. (See above.)
H.W.Rincker cast some notable bells for the city of Chicago,
including the great bell referenced above.
His next younger brother, Johann Jacob (John) Rincker, joined him there in 1847.
The Chicago city directory for 1851 includes an advertisement for the foundry:
and lists not only the two brothers but another Rincker who remains unidentified.
J.J.Rincker left the foundry in 1851 to become a farmer in Will County, Illinois, and left numerous descendants. A brief biography of him, in an 1890 history of Will County, states that he helped cast the great Chicago city fire bell listed above; but given its date, that cannot be correct. Perhaps the Rincker brothers also cast a large fire bell for the previous city hall.
H.W.Rincker left Chicago in 1856, following the death of his second daughter, to attend the Lutheran seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Upon his graduation in 1858, he was called to became the pastor of a Lutheran church in Terre Haute, Indiana, and was ordained to the ministry there. After occasionally preaching at churches in eastern Illinois in the early 1860s, he resigned his pastorate in Terre Haute in 1864 on grounds of ill health, and settled across the border in Illinois. But in 1865 he was called to become the first pastor of a newly-formed Lutheran church in the small town of Sigel, in Shelby County, Illinois. In 1866-67 he was "called to St.Louis," Missouri, to make (or re-make) bells for some Lutheran churches in that area; at least nine are known to have been made then, and seven have survived to this day. He made a bell for the Sigel church in 1875, although by then he was no longer the pastor there. He was also a prosperous farmer, and in the 1880s was described as a "retired farmer".
H.W.Rincker's first wife and oldest son died in the cholera epidemic of 1849-50. He remarried, and had six more children by his second wife; three were born in Chicago, two in Terre Haute and one in Illinois. So altogether he had ten children, of whom three sons and three daughters survived to adulthood. He died in 1889; none of his children followed him in the bellfounding trade, but his descendants among the population of Shelby County are still numerous.
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This index page was built from the database on 02-Jul-01 and last revised on 30-Jul-23.
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