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The news that Dr Hubert Henkel had died at the age of 76 in Munich took the professional world by surprise. He set standards as a scholar, published organologist and museum director. His papers and books are among the field's most important guides.
Born in Saxony in the town of Süptitz bei Torgau, he learned the joiner's trade from his father from 1951 to 1954 and then worked until 1957 first as a joiner at his father's firm, then in Dresden. However, his interest lay in music, and as a working man he easily obtained admission to courses, which was possible without a secondary school diploma. He studied church music in Halle from 1958 to 1963, while also obtaining the 'Abitur' school leaving certificate at the public educational centre, then from 1963 to 1964 he took courses in piano and conducting at the Hochschule in Leipzig. Then came studies in musicology between 1964 and 1969 at Karl Marx University in Leipzig.
This is where I had my first experience with him: he was about ten years older than the other students and me, significantly more mature, and superior to us beginners. He and I were already connected by one thing in those days: an interest in historical musical instruments and organology. My fate led me back to Hungary in 1970, to the musical instrument collection of the National Museum. He was hired by the musical instrument museum of Karl Marx University in Leipzig in 1971, where I served my apprenticeship as a musical instrument restorer from the fall of 1966 to 1970. Henkel was soon promoted, and was appointed academic assistant in 1973. From then on he worked on his dissertation on historical harpsichord construction (based on the collections), which he successfully defended in 1976. These 628 pages of comprehensive research already show the direction of his interests, as well as his systematic reasoning. His experience as a joiner is shown, and he was the first to deal with the valuable keyboard instrument collection in Leipzig not only through historical and musical aspects, but also structural and technological ones. His way of describing keyboard instruments has become influential. He prepared scaling curves, and had specialists identify types of wood, pigments, and ornamental engravings and paintings...