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:  H.W.Rincker advertisement 1851  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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