This violin carries its history inside. Glued to the interior is a handwritten note:
“The second violin, Wedding violin, made by Leopold Reininger-Delz, an Austrian, during the time he spent as a refugee in Switzerland in the year of the Han-World-War 1944.”
The maker, Leopold Reininger-Delz, was an Austrian who found refuge in Switzerland during the Second World War. While neutral, Switzerland became a temporary home to thousands of displaced people — Jews fleeing deportation, political exiles, and others who managed to escape the surrounding violence.
In this environment of uncertainty, Reininger-Delz built this violin, which he referred to as a “wedding violin.” Though the meaning of the name is not entirely clear, it suggests the violin was created for a moment of joy and unity in the midst of war.
Handmade under the conditions of exile, the instrument stands as a testament to continuity: the persistence of craft, the endurance of music, and the desire to mark life’s milestones even in times of upheaval.
Arriving from Switzerland decades later, the Wedding Violin now joins the Violins of Hope collection, carrying with it both the story of its refugee maker and the fragile hope that music and love could survive even in 1944, one of the darkest years of the war.
