LIFE

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On 9 June 1906 Hans Gloetzner was in Constantinople (Passport Application 1906) Signed by H & J Blumenthal Frères, Grünberg

In Jan 1916 returns to USA

COLUMBIA RECORD COMPANY's International DepartmentHans Maria Gloetzner was born on 23 December 1882 in Washington DC, the son of Anton A. Gloetzner and Johanna (= Jane Francis) Nast.


In 1896 four Gloetzner brothers (American Citizens) Raymond, Hermann, Anton and Hans Gloetzner apparently visited Europe (Germany?).


They returned to the USA via Antwerp Belgium and arrived in New York on July 28, 1896.
Hans M. GLOETZNER/GLÖTZNER
+ Raymond A. GLOETZNER
+ Hermann GLOETZNER (17y 11m, student)
+ Anton GLOETZNER (16y 5m, student)
ethnicity: US citizen
profession: student
date of departure: July 1896
port of departure: Antwerp, Belgium
ship's name: SS "FRIESLAND"
date of arrival: 28 July 1896
age on arrival: 13y 7m


Hans Gloetzner left the United States on 9 October 1901, as he himself indicated on several of his passport applications (Nos. 3481, 1006 and 463).
His first passport application (of 1901) is not available.
(According to Kinnear, Hans Gloetzner left for Europe in 1902)

On 7 January 1902 Hans Gloetzner (“student”) again applied for a passport, this time at the Embassy of the United States in Berlin, Germany.
It was issued to him on the same day under No. 3481.
John D. Smoot testified to / confirmed / vouching for his identity by signing the document.
Smoot used his own passport of 2 May 1901 (No. 40333) as means of identification.

He recorded in Rumania (July? 1903)
7-inch 13000-13097 (highest known catalogue number)
10-inch X-2600-2635 (highest known catalogue number)

On 8 February 1904 Hans Gloetzner again applied for a new passport at Berlin.
He was given a passport that same day (No. 1006). Passport not available.

Letter of 23 April 1904 from Hermann Schwabe (International Zonophone Company, Filiale Berlin) to Th. B. Birnbaum (The Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd. London):

Enclosed I hand you ....... and, by order of Messrs Cooper & Cooper: a detailed analysis of the amount charged to Recording Account during the 6 months ending 31st December amounting to M. 6337,87.

[Zonophone] Recording Expenses July-December 1903

Juli 1. für an Ant. Sattler gegebene Waren 15.-

,, 18. Spesen des Hans Glötzner für in Jassy
gemachte rumänische Aufnahmen 988.90

,, 18. Zahlung a/O. Grünberg, Jassy, für Aufnahme-
spesen 101.65

Aug. 12. für im Mai an Mr. Smoot gemachte Zahlung
von Nicole Frères, London 24.17

Sept. 23. für von Grünberg bezahlte rumänische
Aufnahmen 1179.55

,, 30. Spesen des Ed. Pancoast für brasilianische
Aufnahmen in Rio de Janeiro 546.66

,, 30. Salair a/Mr. Pancoast vom 27/6. bis 3. Oct. 3234.-

Oct. 1. für in Amsterdam verauslagte Fracht- & Zoll-
spesen a/Wachsplatten laut Angabe von Mr.
Moorhouse 133.27

Dec. 8. für von H. & J. Blumenthal Frères im Juni
verauslagte Spesen in Constantinopel 85.-

,, 19. für im Juni an Ant. Sattler gegebene Waren 93.-
______

M 6401.20

Hiervon geht ab:

Oct. 1. von Blieck, Amsterdam, erhaltener Betrag
laut Angabe von Mr. Moorhouse 63.33
______

M 6337.87

On 4 August 1904 Martha Ziegler ("musical student") obtained a passport (#92379)


Hans Gloetzner [ANCESTRY’s “C.” Gloetzner is a misreading of “H.” Gloetzner] returned on 13 November 1904 from Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).
SS “Magdalena” came from Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Santos - Rio de Janeiro - Bahia - Pernambuco - Vigo - Southampton
(also listed: R. S. de Azevedo. Related?).
On 13 November 1904 Hans Gloetzner arrived at Southampton on board the SS “Magdalena” (Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. Ltd., British), having embarked at Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Buenos Aires-Santos-Rio de Janeiro-Bahia-Pernambuco-Lisbon-Vigo-Southampton (source: UK-INCOMING under C. (sic) Gloetzner; original has ‘H’)

In May 1906 Hans Gloetzner may have been (recording?) in South America.
This can be concluded on the basis of the following letter, dated 1 June 1906, which N. M. Rodkinson (DGAG, Berlin) sent to Theo B. Birnbaum (London):
NEW EXPERT - I am very much inclined to agree to the view expressed by Gaisberg and would suggest one of the ODEON men.
The best man the ODEON has, is young Glötzner [= Hans Gloetzner] who I understand is at present in South-America.
Their man Pancoast has also done some fine recording.
I think it would be very difficult to get one of the Glötzners, but Pancoast might be approached in London.
The entire staff of the ODEON is American with the exception of Goldstein, who is not worth considering.

On 9 June 1906 Hans Gloetzner (“mechanic”) applied for a passport at the Legation of the United States at Constantinople, Turkey. The passport (No. 463) was issued that same day.
At the bottom of the application we find [Jak] Grünberg‘s signature on behalf of H. & J. Blumenthal Frères.

(Is there a gap between May and July 1906 in the Fonotipia recordings?)

On 14 September Kenneth Muir was in England and had a talk with T. B. Birnbaum.
After his return to Milan Muir saw Hans Gloetzner, according to a letter, dated 28 September1906, from Muir (Milan) to Birnbaum (London):

GLOETZNER - Hans Gloetzner arrived here [in Milan] shortly after my arrival and I have had an opportunity of having a long conversation with him. I mentioned casually that our Company [= The Gramophone Company] was short of Recording Experts owing to the ever increasing volume of business and that at least two more would be required. He at once pricked up his ears at this and said it was a pity he had not been told this by me two days earlier when he signed a new contract with Prescott at Berlin.
I told him that I was only speaking in general terms and was not thinking specially of him but that I thought that of the ODEON recording experts he and his brother [Raymond] would be the only ones who our Company would consider favourably. He informed me that the contract he has just made is for a salary of 250 Marks a week and that he was not very satisfied with it and also that he has a considerable amount of friction with Prescott of whom he expressed himself in very uncomplimentary terms. He also seems to have a bad opinion of Erlanger and thinks that the action taken with regard to Michaelis was very shabby.
He expressed a fear that if he entered our Company the reason for taking him would be to deprive the ODEON of their best experts and that if this Company [ODEON] were to be ruined the object of The Gramophone Company in taking him would have been accomplished and there would be no further use for him.
I said that if he really thought that, he ought to give our Company a wide berth but that nothing was further from the truth and that he must not allow himself to be prejudiced because he is in a competitive Company not likely to regard their competitors with an excess of admiration. He stated his unwillingness to break a contract unless he had some serious justification for doing so and that our Company would certainly have a poor opinion of him, were he to do so, to which I fully agreed and said that we would certainly not do anything to induce him to take such a step, but that in the event of his having serious cause it might be of interest to him to know that there would be a chance of our Company considering him favourably as a recording expert.
He further volunteered the remark that if his brother [Raymond Gloetzner] were to come over with him, he [Raymond] would probably not wish to be employed as an expert but would prefer a good billet at the factory, but that this would be difficult in view of his hostility to Berliner.
From the whole conversation I received the impression that the Gloetzners are far from satisfied with their present positions and would infinitely prefer to be with us.
I also received the impression that their Company is not nearly so prosperous as we suppose.
He told me that they were now going to make more Bonci records and that they wish to make as many as possible now, as they do not think Bonci's voice will hold out for long.
He also told me that radical measures are being taken to cut down the management charges at Milan, that the Board have ordered the advertising charges to be heavily reduced and no cash advances on account of royalty to be paid to artistes on the conclusion of contracts.

[for info on Gloetzners and other ODEON experts see LINDSTRÖM-folder.
For Raymond A. Gloetzner see also:
Agreement of November 23, 1921 between GENERAL PHONOGRAPH CORPORATION and CARL LINDSTROEM AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT p. 58]


Letter 27 April 1907 from Leo B. Cohn (Berlin) to Theo. B. Birnbaum (Milan) (see Lindström folder):
I am in receipt of your favour of April 25th.

[Raymond] Gloetzner's contract runs up till December 1908, and I do not believe that under those circumstances he will be able to confirm your offer.
Besides all, I do not think that Raymond would accept. Mr. Rink has offered to renew his contract on the following terms:
25,000.- Marks per annum and 5% of the net profits without any limit.
That, of course, is a very good offer, and at least for the next following two years, where, I suppose, the Company will show a good profit.
Mr. Rink even offered to Raymond to have that new arrangement coming into force, beginning from January of this year [1907].
You might be interested to know that they expect to have a fusion between the two Companies [Odeon & Fonotipia] this year yet, and that they plan to have their own offices all over, if they can get rid of their contracts with Agents. Of course, I do not know, how much truth is in that statement made to me.
Hans Gloetzner is at present in Milan, stopping at the Hotel Rome. He gets M 250.- a week, and he is trying to pull Mr. Rink's leg.
Hans has told Rink that [the] Blumenthal[s] are anxious to get him for themselves, and that he has some other offers from other people, and Rink offered him already a new contract with M 25,000.-
You see how scared the [Odeon] people are to lose one of those men, because they know that their business depends more or less of these people.

(How did Leo B. Cohn [= Leo B. Kurth] know these things? Because, before joining The Gramophone Company he worked for one year for The International Talking Machine Company [Odeon] (PhZ 7/25/537 = ca. June 1906, dS -/15/350 = 6 April 1907 and PhZ 8/15/384 = 11 April 1907)

In 1907 Martha Ziegler - age 25 and still single - had apparently visited her future husband Hans Gloetzner in Germany.

On 27 July 1907 she departed from Hamburg on board the SS "PENNSYLVANIA" and via Boulogne-sur-Mer and Plymouth she arrived at New York


On 28 December 1907 Hans leaves Germany on board of the "SS Blücher" to pay his first visit to the USA since he arrived in Europe.
He arrives in New York on 7 January 1908.

Hans M. GLOETZNER/GLÖTZNER (single!!!)
+ Emile SUESS (45y) (brother of Werner SUESS ?)
ethnicity: US citizen
profession: civil engineer
date of departure: 28 Dec 1907
port of departure: Cuxhaven, Germany
ship's name: SS "BLUECHER"
date of arrival: 7 Jan 1908
age on arrival: 25y
final destination: New York (Washington)

During his stay in the USA (probably in January 1908) he married Martha Veronica Ziegler, a concert singer (10 October 1883 - 27 June 1964) in Wilmington, Delaware.

She was the sister of Raymond Gloetzner’s wife Mary Ann Ziegler.
On 11 February 1908 Hans Gloetzner applied to the Department of State at Washington for a new passport for himself and his (new) wife Martha Veronica Ziegler, which is issued that same day (No. 46043).
“Am about to proceed to Italy” it says on the application form

Hans and Martha Gloetzner left the United States on 15 February 1908 (source: passport application No. 22609).

Since Hans was responsible for ODEON and FONOTIPIA recordings in Milan, it is worth noting that the last 1907 FONOTIPIA recordings were made on 21 December 1907 only to be resumed on 23 January 1908.
This fits in exactly with the period Hans was away in America...

On 23 December 1909 their son Hans Maria Gloetzner Jr. is born in Milan, Italy.

On 1 March 1910 Hans Gloetzner (“engineer”) applies in Berlin for a new passport for himself and his wife Martha.
The passport is issued on 23 March 1910 (No. 22609).

In May 1910 Hans Gloetzner made Odeon recordings in Berlin for the Swiss branch: XBo 3688-91 and XBo 3712-3725 (Hans Peter Woessner).

Between 27 and 30 July 1911 he again made Swiss recordings for ODEON in Zürich.
(xBo 4517-4589)

On 6 September 1911 one of the Joint Managing Directors of THE GRAMOPHONE COMPANY, Sydney Dixon or Alfred Clark, wrote to Eldridge R. Johnson of the VICTOR TALKING MACHINE COMPANY, Camden (see Lindström folder):

I give you herewith some notes which have been gathered during the last week by our Intelligence Department on the Lindström - ODEON combination.
Prescott joins the Board. He brought off the deal and made this a stipulation.
The Capital is now Mks. 3,500,000 and the Directors are said to be Prescott, [Max] Strauss, Heineman, Consol Marks [= Consul Marx] and Loewenherzer of the Darmstadter Bank.
It is said that Rink will leave them at the end of his contract, and that the other joint Managing Director of the ODEON Company remains.
Their recorders, as far as we know, are Hans & Raymond Gloetzner, [Alexander] Nagel, Perpeti [= G. Papetti], and an American whose name we don't know [Dan Smoot?].
It is also reported that [Max] Strauss and Consol Marks [= Consul Marx] sail on September 14th for the States to meet Prescott to study the situation in America.
Strauss informed one of our staff that he will personally remain in America to take up the manufacture of Talking Machines. He talked of erecting a big factory on your side in order to commence delivering as soon as the Berliner patent expires.
[Max Strauss (b. ca 1876) and Salomon Marx (b. ca 1866) with his wife Helena Marx (b. 1869) arrived in New York on 23 September 1911]

In September 1911 Hans Gloetzner was living in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.

In January 1912 he made Swiss recordings in Berlin (xBo 4930-4943).

On 28 October 1914 their second son, Henry James Gloetzner, was born in Berlin.

On 30 December 1914 Hans Gloetzner receives a new pasport (No. 47845)
On an otherwise empty form it says: “Application made in Embassy at Berlin.”
“Original sent to Department of Justice for Investigation.”

“My last passport was obtained from Ambassador Girard, Berlin, on 1915 and was taken in/up at port of New York, 1916, Noordam, Jan.” (passport No. 71336).


On 11 January 1916 Hans Gloetzner together with his wife Martha and their two sons, Hans Maria Jr. and Henry James, departing from Rotterdam (Holland) to return for good to the USA.
They arrived at New York on 29 January 1916
As forwarding address in the USA Hans had given:
c/o COLUMBIA GRAPHOPHONE COMPANY, Woolworth Building, New York City (ELLIS ISLAND files)
They arrived in New York on 29 January 1916.

Hans M. GLOETZNER/GLÖTZNER (filed under: Hans. M. GLOEBZNER (sic))
+ Martha V. (32y)
+ Hans M. (6y)
+ Henry James (1y)
ethnicity: US citizen
profession: civil engineer
date of departure: 11 Jan 1916
port of departure: Rotterdam, South Holland, The Netherlands
ship's name: SS "NOORDAM"
date of arrival: 29 Jan 1916
age on arrival: 33y
place of residence: c/o Columbia Gr[aphophone] Co[mpany]
Woolworth Building
New York City


After his return to America Hans Gloetzner went to work for COLUMBIA RECORD Co.'s International Department (see his obituary)

Back in the USA Hans Maria Gloetzner changed his first name from “Hans” to “John”.
Likewise his son Hans Maria Jr. came to be called “John Maria Jr.”.

Harry Coster has ODEON recording sheets with Hans Gloetzner’s name on them.


On 29 July 1921 John (= Hans) Gloetzner filed an application for a passport at the office of the State Department in New York.
It was accompanied by a letter from his father and a letter from the Columbia Graphophone Company, testifying that Mr. John Gloetzner was an employee of that company and that he was being sent to Europe for an indefinite period for the purpose of recording master waxes for them.

On 1 August 1921 Hans Gloetzner - now calling himself “John Gloetzner” - applied for a new passport at the Department of State at Washington.
The passport was issued at Washington the next day (under No. 71336).
I intend to leave the United States from the port of New York sailing on board the “Noordam” on September 15th 1921.
My last passport was obtained from Ambassador Girard, Berlin, on 1915 and was taken in/up at port of New York, 1916, Noordam, Jan[uary].
Milan - Italy, from 1908 to 1910
Berlin - Germany, from 1910 to January 1916
Holland: “Recording ….. (?) for Columbia Graphophone Co.” striked out and replaceced by “for personal business”.
William Frederick Freiberg, recording expert of the Columbia Graphophone Co., was the identifying witness.


In September 1921 John (formerly Hans) Gloetzner and his wife sailed for Europe.
An accompanying letter to his 1921 passport application explains why.
It is a letter from the Columbia Graphophone Company (dated 29 July 1921) which reads as follows:

“Mr. John Gloetzner is an employee of this company, and we are sending him to Europe for an indefinite period for the purpose of recording master waxes for us.”

For this recording trip [Hans/John Gloetzner] see New Foreign Language Records (in: The Talking Machine World Vol. 18, No. 2 (p. 146b))


According to the ELLIS ISLAND registration they departed on 13 December 1921 from Bremen, Germany, and arrived back in New York on 24 December 1921.

John (= Hans) M. GLOETZNER/GLÖTZNER
+ Martha GLOETZNER/GLÖTZNER
date of departure: 13 Dec 1921
port of departure: Bremen, Germany
ship's name: SS AMERICA
date of arrival: 24 Dec 1921
age on arrival: 39y
place of residence: Belle Island, South Norwalk, CN

COLUMBIA Record Co.'s international department (Obituary in The Norwalk Hour, Norwalk, Connecticut)

On 27 June 1964 his wife Martha Veronica Ziegler died in Norwalk, Fairfield, CT

The following year Hans/John Maria Gloetzner died on 31 December 1965 in Norwalk, Connecticut...


PASSPORT APPLICATIONS of Hans/John Maria Gloetzner:
1901 (-)
1904 (#1006)
1906 (#463)
1908 (#46043)
1910 (#22609)
1914 (#47845)
1921 (#71336 + photo)