Karlheinz Joura

Karlheinz Joura (b. 1942) is a German pipe maker working in Bremen, known for his straight-grain briar pipes. He never learned the craft under any master, taking it up through his own experiments in his early thirties. His principle of small, meticulous production has carried his name beyond Germany; he has been counted among his country's most sought-after makers in international collector circles.

From Bohemia to Bremen

Joura was born in 1942 in Bohemia, within the borders of today's Czechia. His family was forced to leave the region in 1946 and settled in Rostock; his childhood and youth thus passed in the German Democratic Republic. He trained as a machine fitter, while also rising in platform diving and entering his country's national squad in 1961. In the autumn of that same year he hid in the lower holds of a cargo ship and fled to West Germany; sources do not agree on the ship's flag or the port where he came ashore. He settled in Bremen, where his friends lived, and although he competed for a while longer, he did not make the Olympic team. He then worked for about ten years as a certified physical education teacher in schools.