Richard Jacob Weissgerber (1877 - 1960) was a well known guitar maker from Markneukirchen. His father was also a guitar maker - Carl August Jacob (1846 - 1918). His maternal grandfather, master luthier Christian Wilhelm Seidel, was responsible for his early training. Between 1891 and 1894 he trained as a zither maker and then worked three years as a zither maker's assistant. After military service from 1897 to 1899 in Strasbourg, he turned to guitar making. He was an assistant to the master guitar maker Wilhelm Voigt for six years. In 1905 Richard Jacob started an independent career as a master instrument maker, though working first in the workshop of his father until his marriage in 1911 to Maria Magdalena Wächter of Töpen.

Richard Jacob ran his workshop as a family business, which (from 1929) was in his own house at Goethestraße No. 2. His 2 sons were his only employees. His younger son Arnold (born 1917) worked in his workshop from 1932 but died in 1944 as a result of an injury received as a soldier in the Second World War. Hisolder son Martin (1911-1994) worked from 1926 for only a short time in the Weißgerber workshop; before he left to study in Leipzig and then became an elementary school teacher in the school district of Oelsnitz/Vogtland. In 1945 he was removed from school service due to his membership in the Nazi party and so he retrained as a guitar maker in his father's workshop. In 1949 he passed the examination for a master craftman's diploma.

Weissgerber's guitars were held in high regard and early on gained an international reputation. Richard Jacob kept in touch with many important guitarists who influenced his development and encouraged him towards the Spanish style of guitar making and particularly the Torres model.

Source: University of Lepzig Museum of Musical Instruments (14 September 2021)